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Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Ebola Information And Updates

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    Posted: July 10 2014 at 7:38am
Dear Madam or Sir,

In order to comply with the requests to keep information in one category, I have
created this new topic heading;"Ebola Information And Updates." Hopefully that
will have a positive effect on the equilibrium, and be of benefit to you and your
readers.

Respectfully,
Astrologic

Dear Forum Representatives And Readers,

Please educate yourselves and your families to the places and situations which could
bring you in contact with Ebola. Think about places where people sweat, such as
health clubs, yoga spas and sports facilities and athletic places in general. Know the
symptoms, the period from contact and the length of time during which phase the
body is highly contagious. Think way ahead of this terrifying killer.

Also, please remember that economics will trump truth, when news and information
is being conveyed. If there are many conflicting reports, or things as they are being
presented do not add up, think, think again and again and do what your sensible
intellect demands.

Health News of Thursday, 10 July 2014

Ebola scare: Body of American to be flown to USA


Ebola Victim Victim

The body of the American expatriate at the centre of the Ebola virus scare is to be flown back to the United States of America (USA). The expatriate, who is said to have travelled to one of the infected countries in the sub-region, died on Monday, July 7, 2014.

The body is to be released to the American Embassy in Ghana. A source at the Ministry of Health (MoH), who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic, said the four nurses who were also quarantined after they had come into contact with the American before his death were released on Tuesday evening.

No Ebola in Ghana

The release of the followed four tests conducted by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) which proved that the patient did not suffer from Ebola fever.

Although the American, who died at the Nyaho Medical Centre, on Sunday, July 6, 2014, presented symptoms suggestive of haemorrhagic fever, all the test conducted on him proved that he did not have Ebola fever.

A statement on Monday, signed by the Medical Director of the centre, Dr Victoria Fummey, and made available to the Daily Graphic, said the expatriate was transferred to the centre by the West African Rescue Association (WARA).

As a precautionary measure, MOH requested the four nurses to be quarantined and placed more public health personnel at the clinic after supplying them with protective gowns.

Emergency measures

To ensure that the virus did not spread in the country, if the test on the American had proved positive, the MoH on Tuesday held an emergency meeting with the National Disease Surveillance Team to put in place measures that would help contain any possible spread of Ebola fever in the country.

The team includes the Department of Public Health, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

The ministry earlier advised the public to remain calm and that the team was working very hard, especially in the area of public education, to raise the required awareness and get all to practise the highest level prevention and control measures.

://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/health/artikel.php?ID=316342&comment=0#com
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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/07/09/ebola_clinic_video_footage_from_conakry_guinea.html
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I personally do not believe that the survival rate for Ebola is as high as is being reported.
The doctors, politicians and investors want individuals to believe that they will be saved
by turning themselves in to a clinic.

They probably hope that  by promoting that they can cure Ebola, that they can at least,
get those who are contagious out of circulation.

What is more likely, is that those whom they are saving, have other, less deadly fevers,
and therefore are more likely to survive.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jacksdad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 10 2014 at 8:49am
Originally posted by Astrologic Astrologic wrote:

The doctors, politicians and investors want individuals to believe that they will be saved by turning themselves in to a clinic.


Standard protocol in an outbreak like this - get people showing symptoms into quarantine until they're cleared of infection. I don't see anything nefarious in that.
"Buy it cheap. Stack it deep"
"Any community that fails to prepare, with the expectation that the federal government will come to the rescue, will be tragically wrong." Michael Leavitt, HHS Secretary.
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Originally posted by jacksdad jacksdad wrote:

Originally posted by Astrologic Astrologic wrote:

The doctors, politicians and investors want individuals to believe that they will be saved by turning themselves in to a clinic.


Standard protocol in an outbreak like this - get people showing symptoms into quarantine until they're cleared of infection. I don't see anything nefarious in that.


I am not saying that this protocol is "nefarious." However, it seems to me, from the many different
reports I have read on this subject, that the identification processes, at least in these particular areas
of Africa, are somewhat problematic.

Only time will tell if this situation progresses to conquer the worldwide warriors' system, or if it is
merely another ruse. I don't "believe" any report until I can either see it manifest over and over,
witnesses whom I can trust see it manifest over and over, and I remain safe and secure, in the
middle of the fiery furnace. One must question over and over and over, until one "knows."
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http://allafrica.com/stories/201407101069.html

Liberia: Health Workers Flee Ebola

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor, 10 July 2014

Health workers in Liberia are said to be fleeing and returning from their areas of assignment due to the increasing number of Ebola patients. Some are said to have died from treating patients infected by the deadly virus.

Speaking in plenary yesterday at the Capitol Building, Senate's Committee Chairman on Health, Dr. Peter Coleman disclosed that there were 12 cases of health workers infected by the Ebola Virus- ten of whom have already died; and as a result, trained and professional health workers were leaving their areas of assignment at clinics and hospitals for fear of being infected.

The Grand Kru County Senator noted that the only option to maintain these health workers is for the government to direct sufficient funds to efforts against the deadly virus which has engulfed the sub region and could be uncontrollable for months.

He said the Ministry of Health has proposed the amount of US$1.5 million to combat the epidemic or the population of the country could be in serious danger.

Maryland County Senator H. Dan Morais called on the administration to decide on a national state of emergency- an action that would enable officers of the Armed Forces of Liberia along with health workers to be posted from the Red-light via Gardnerville to the Gabriel Tucker Bridge for inspection and testing to determine carriers of the virus.

The Liberian Senate, through a motion from Lofa County Senator George Tingbeh, agreed that the leaderships of the both House of Representatives and Liberian Senate submit a resolution to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, calling for the immediate provision of the US$1.5 million in order to combat the deadly. On July 1, 2014, a medical practitioner from Uganda, involved with the fight against the spread of the Ebola virus in Liberia, died.

Dr. Sam Mokoro, who had worked at the state-owned Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town on Busrod Island in Monrovia, died at the John F. Kennedy Hospital where he had been undergoing treatment for nearly two weeks.

Assistant Minister of Health for Preventive Services Tolbert Nyesuah told a local radio station in Monrovia that a nurse of the same hospital last month died after contracting the disease. She had been treating Ebola patients when she fell ill. The Ministry of Health reported that 49 persons have died from the Ebola disease in Liberia out of 90 confirmed cases as of June 29.

There is still no cure for the deadly Ebola virus disease, which has an incubation period between two and 21 days and carries a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in Sudan and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, taking its name from the Ebola River where the DR Congo outbreak was found in a nearby village.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines the Ebola virus disease, formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, as "a severe, often fatal illness" and "one of the world's most virulent diseases."

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http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/10/ebola-in-africa-can-dodge-global-pandemic/

Ebola in Africa: Can we dodge a global pandemic?

 Chris Kilham
Ebola

CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith

Right now, a fight for survival is taking place in the West African nations of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Ebola, one of the most lethal diseases on the planet, is on a killing rampage.  In Guinea, 303 people have died. In Sierra Leone, 99 have perished, and in Guinea, 65 lives have been claimed.

Within a few days, these figures will be higher. And the disease appears to just be getting warmed up. Spread by contact with bodily fluids, Ebola is flourishing in West Africa, and could be coming soon to a place near you.

When the outbreak began in Guinea in April, the mortality rate was higher than it is now. But the virus is still an extreme hazard, and health workers must work in full bio-hazard suits in order to keep themselves from being infected by the patients they are serving. The protective suits are extremely hot in the sweltering West African climate. They are like little mobile sauna units, slowly cooking the doctors, nurses and aids working inside them.

Named after the Ebola River, the virus was first discovered in 1976 in what was then Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. A viral disease, Ebola starts out like a bad flu, exhibiting initial symptoms of fever, weakness, headache and muscle pain – but that’s where the similarities end.

The more severe symptoms commence as early as two days after contact with the virus. Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever, meaning it causes the rupturing of blood vessels throughout the body.  Victims may bleed from the eyes, nose, mouth, ears, anus and genitals, as well as through skin ruptures. The liver, lungs, spleen and lymph nodes can be overcome by Ebola, leading to massive organ failure, and an agonizing death can follow.

There are five strains of Ebola: Zaire, Sudan, Reston, Cote d’Ivoire, and Bundibugyo. Of these, four are known to cause the disease in humans, whereas Reston does not appear to do so.  The disease is transmitted from animals to humans. Fruit bats, monkeys, and wild game may host the virus and spread it to humans, but bats in particular are on the radar of health officials. They are known as reservoir species, carrying the virus without becoming sick from the disease.

Despite urgent, high level attention from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ebola has no specific treatment, no vaccine, and no effective medicines. Bed rest and remaining hydrated appear to be as effective as any course of treatment, with a disease whose mortality rate can be as high as 90 percent. In clinics, Ebola patients are kept isolated as much as possible, and any utensils used to diagnose them must be fastidiously sterilized. Health workers take a huge risk tending to the Ebola infected, and only bio-hazard suits afford enough protection. Still, even one accidental prick from a dirty needle can lead to infection. It is very risky business.

Now, we don’t have to worry, right? Ebola is, after all, over in Africa, far removed from us. Nothing could be further from the alarming truth.

Imagine this scenario: A health worker tends to Ebola patients in Guinea, and remains healthy due to good sanitation practices. Eventually, that health worker needs to travel to the United States or Europe, and he or she boards a plane. Unknowingly, they are infected but symptom-free so far. On the long flight home, they start to feel some aches and chills, and at one point, they sneeze, sending thousands of viruses into the air through the atomized mucus expelled from the nose. Other passengers breathe that air, taking in a few viruses here and there, and they become infected.

And a global pandemic starts to roll.

This is neither a far-off scenario nor science fiction. It is a real possibility. And this is why health officials are so gravely concerned about the current Ebola outbreak. Unlike previous smaller outbreaks which have occurred in rural locations, this one is happening in hot, humid cities where crowds are dense and sanitation is sketchy; where basic hygiene is often hard to manage and many people eat wild game that might be infected. It is a perfect recipe for a massive, uncontrolled outbreak. Infecting another person is as easy as a sneeze, a kiss, cleaning up after someone, making contact with mucus, urine or feces.

The question, then, is what can you do? Except for staying away from anyone infected, you can’t do much. Right now it’s up to the health workers laboring in excessively hot bio-hazard suits, and to officials who are working hard on containment. This situation in West Africa could in fact be the start of a global disaster, or it may be another near-miss. The threat is real, and the disease is on the move. Will we dodge the Ebola bullet? Right now, all we can do is watch and wait.

Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV programs worldwide. His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read more at MedicineHunter.com.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/07/10/330133944/ebola-101-the-facts-behind-a-frightening-virus

Ebola 101: The Facts Behind A Frightening Virus

by Linda Poon

Medical workers with the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders treat a woman for Ebola in Gueckedou, Guinea. Despite their protective gear, the workers try to maintain human contact with patients by talking with them and getting close enough to look into their eyes.

Medical workers with the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders treat a woman for Ebola in Gueckedou, Guinea. Despite their protective gear, the workers try to maintain human contact with patients by talking with them and getting close enough to look into their eyes.

Sylvain Cherkaoui/Cosmos

Health workers have called the Ebola outbreak in West Africa unprecedented, and even out of control.

With 844 cases so far, it's the largest and deadliest outbreak since the virus was discovered in 1976. And it doesn't show signs of slowing down. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization 50 new cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Despite the current crisis, however, the likelihood of the virus's spreading beyond Africa is .

Here's what we know about this painful and deadly disease.

On the lookout for SARS, an employee checks a babys temperature at the Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, in 2003. The deadly virus quickly spread around the world once it reached Hong Kong, a central travel hub.

What is it? A nasty, often fatal form of hemorrhagic fever that gets its name from a in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's where Ebola was first detected, in a nearby village.

There are five different species of Ebola, each named after where it was first found. Sudan, Bundibugyo (named after a Ugandan district) and Zaire viruses have all been linked to outbreaks in Africa. The Tai Forest virus, found in the Ivory Coast, has only caused one documented case — a scientist who caught it from sick chimpanzees in 1994.

The fifth species is , named after the D.C. suburb of Reston, Va. Yes, that's right: Ebola was found in Virginia, but just in monkeys. They had been shipped from the Philippines to a Reston laboratory.

So far, there have been no documented outbreaks of Ebola Reston in humans.

Workers with Doctors Without Borders prepare isolation and treatment areas for Ebola patients in Gueckedou, Guinea.

Symptoms: It can take anywhere from two to 21 days after infection for symptoms to kick in, but once they do, the pain is excruciating. It starts off with a fever, muscle pains, vomiting and diarrhea. It also makes the victims so weak that it leaves them bedridden. As the virus spreads, it can shut down major organs, such as the kidneys and liver. And the infection can cause internal and external bleeding from openings in the body, including eyes, ears, nose, rectum and even pores. The peak of the illness is the first seven to 10 days, during which patients are most likely to die.

How often does it kill somebody? Each Ebola species is associated with a specific mortality rate.

Health workers are currently battling the deadliest one, Zaire, which can kill up to 90 percent of people infected.

So far in this outbreak, there have been 518 deaths. That puts the current mortality rate at about 60 percent. This improvement is most likely because health workers are better at giving supportive care to patients, like nutrition and fluids, which may help their immune systems fight the virus. Health workers also track down those infected, or likely infected, more quickly. So supportive care can start earlier.

A health worker from Doctors Without Borders examines Ebola patient Finda Marie Kamano, 33, at her home in Conakry, Guinea, in April. The outbreak that began in February is still spreading in West Africa.

How does it spread? Through close contact with infected blood, saliva, urine and stool.

In previous outbreaks, researchers have found that the virus initially spread to people from infected monkeys, which are hunted and eaten in parts of rural Central Africa. Some scientists also think that bats are the of the virus.

Health care workers and family members can catch Ebola by caring for the sick. An infected person remains contagious even after death. So family members can also be infected while preparing a body for burial.

Where does it live? The illness mostly crops up in remote villages of Central Africa, with in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. There have also been outbreaks in Uganda in 2000, late 2007 and 2012.

This year marks the in West Africa. The WHO reported the first confirmed cases in Guinea back in March, although some officials say people may have been infected in late 2013. The virus then rapidly spread to the neighboring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

What's fueling the current outbreak? A few things. The virus has struck densely populated cities, such as Conakry, Guinea, and Monrovia, Liberia. Cases have cropped up in 60 across a large swath of land.

Since the disease is new to the region, many people aren't aware of how Ebola is transmitted. And the resources devoted to stopping the outbreak have been limited. Last week, the WHO more money, people and attention were needed to keep the virus from spreading to more countries.

Vaccine and cure: None. But some small companies have already started looking. They have come up with a few treatments that show promise in animals and are looking to test them in people as early as .

Infected patients are quarantined in isolation wards to prevent spreading the virus.

Doctors closely monitor to see if symptoms fade and whether the body has produced antibodies to fight off the infection — usually a hopeful sign for a full recovery.

Patients are declared Ebola-free if they don't show any symptoms for several days and if repeated tests for the virus in their bloodstreams come back negative. (The virus can still linger in semen for months and for a shorter time in breast milk, as the antibodies don't reach those areas. Men who recover are given condoms; mothers are told to wean their children.)

In many cases, the virus weakens the body so much that patients have to stay in the clinic days after they're declared virus-free.

What happens to Ebola survivors? Suffering through Ebola is a traumatic experience in itself. Returning home from an isolation ward can also be a challenge.

Ebola survivors are likely to be by their communities. Many people still think survivors are contagious. This is where education and grand gestures from health care workers — a big kiss on the patient's cheek — can help to mitigate the stigma.

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http://allafrica.com/stories/201407090813.html?viewall=1

Liberia: 'You Ain't Know Ebola in Town?'

By Boakai Fofana, 9 July 2014

Photo: Erik Hersman
Downtown Monrovia

Monrovia — The kids chatted happily as they gathered around a community well, carrying buckets and jerry cans to fill with water for their households. They were in a buoyant mood, but it wasn't long before the conversation turned to the deadly virus: "Don't touch me!" the only girl in their midst snorted, pulling back her small frame so that the rubber bucket she held flipped backward over her right shoulder, "You ain't know Ebola in town?"

It was as amusing as it was surprising; and I thought it was money well spent on Ebola sensitization. But her friends hit back: "That thing that scan", a Liberian colloquialism that means "It's only a scheme".

Their reaction epitomizes the mixed views among most Liberians ever since Ebola cases were reported in March after reports that some of their compatriots in northern Lofa county - close to the border with Guinea, the epicenter of the current outbreak - had contracted the disease.

The existing political order at the time is to blame for some of this: rival politicians were in a virtual dogfight ahead to October's senatorial elections (and the next presidential election in 2017 apparently), throwing accusations and counter accusations at those they claim were responsible for the budget deficit the country grapples with.

Some pundits even fueled the degree of apprehension when they started questioning the "actual motive" of the U.S.$1.2 million that health ministry officials projected that they will need to combat the disease.

"They want steal the money; no Ebola here", callers on radio talk shows would allege. This view permeated so widely that when initial reports of new Ebola infections appeared to abate, comedians adopted it as a new fun theme: "Ebola ran away as soon as it heard about the U.S.$1.2 million", a popular on-air personality quipped. Even musicians were quick to put rap lines together for a song titled "Ebola in Town". The new music warns Liberians of the dangers of the deadly virus: "don't touch your friend….no eating something," it blared out of local pubs as dancers crafted new moves that involve no physical contact.

We were all in near panic mode in March following confirmation that samples taken to a French lab came back positive. The Ebola virus had actually crossed over from Guinea as had been feared. "Why they didn't close the border?", some questioned hysterically. "This thing coming killed all of us". Images of East Africa's Ebola victims began to spread on social media, with frightening posts that the disease was capable of "wiping out entire civilizations".

Some have even chosen to abandon the Liberian-style greetings, which involves a firm handshake followed by the characteristic loud snapping of the thumbs and middle fingers.

The act is so common that it's still considered uncultured not to meet an acquaintance's hand, despite constant reminders of the modes of transmission. This prompted my distribution of little bottles of hand sanitizers amongst members of my small household. Everybody is required to carry one along as they take on their daily chores, stopping every now and then to pour the liquid in their palms.

At home, our toddler must find the act amusing as he constantly extends his small hands, crying for the sanitizer to be poured in them. He then mimics the adults around him, except that he also attempts to rub it on his face. What's clearly not fun though is having him play indoors instead of with his mates in the community. Fear of the disease has also put plans for his commencement of daycare on hold, joining many parents who've chosen to keep their kids from school.

Some grocery stores even ran out of hand sanitizers as people scrupulously observed stricter hygienic practices. It took a U.S. embassy circular, apparently meant for U.S. citizens in Liberia, to allay heightened anxiety at the time. It cautioned Americans to take certain steps to ensure their safety, while also emphasizing that the disease wasn't airborne.

Amongst other things, the embassy's 'Ebola updates' said that "transmission among humans is almost exclusively among caregiver family members or health care workers tending to the very ill" and that "a person is not contagious until they are acutely ill". Somehow this information found its way to Liberian platforms and people began to share it with family members and friends.

Not much was heard about the disease in late April and May; health officials were beginning to sound upbeat, suggesting that the country could be declared Ebola free within a given period if no new infection was reported.

And then what seemed like a brief respite was broken in mid-June when the country's Chief Medical Officer Dr Brenice Dahn announced that six people were confirmed to have died in Monrovia's heavily-populated district of New Kru Town. The source of the new infections, she said, was a woman who had traveled from Kailahun District in Sierra Leone - whose government had at the same time announced scores of new infections along its border with Liberia and Guinea.

With this resurgence, confirmed cases of the disease have been reported in a wide geographic region of the country, including areas not so close to borders. But it has also allowed for even more public discourse about whether or not there's Ebola in Liberia in the first place, an altitude some officials of government and ordinary Liberians have publicly scorned: "Let's put the politics aside, this about life and death", they said.

Liberia's heavy monsoon rains, which can aggravate conditions in an already squalid environment in many areas of the country, coupled with a dysfunctional health system and denial of the disease are just the right conditions for the hemorrhage fever-causing virus to thrive. But as Liberians like to say: "This too shall pass."

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28268430
11 July 2014 Last updated at 09:33 

Ebola deaths mount in Sierra Leone and Liberia

Health workers take blood samples for Ebola virus testing at a screening tent in the local government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone - 30 June 2014 The WHO said Sierra Leone accounted for 32 new cases of Ebola and 15 deaths between 6-8 July

High numbers of new cases of the Ebola virus are being reported in Sierra Leone and Liberia, with 19 deaths over three days this week, the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Such figures showed that it was a race against time to control the epidemic in Sierra Leone, medical charity MSF said.

In total there have been 539 deaths in West Africa since the outbreak began in neighbouring Guinea in February.

Regional leaders have now agreed to set up a fund to combat its spread.


Families can be driven out of their villages, and sick people can be cast out to die on their own”

Anja Wolz MSF

At a summit of the regional body Ecowas in Ghana on Thursday, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to contribute $3m (£1.8m) to the fund.

Ebola spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids and there is no vaccine or cure.

It kills up to 90% of those infected but if patients receive early treatment, they have a better chance of survival.

'Precarious'

The WHO statement said that Sierra Leone had accounted for 32 new cases and 15 deaths, while Liberia reported 11 new cases and four deaths.

line
WHO: West Africa Ebola outbreak figures
Map
  • Guinea - 309 deaths, 409 cases
  • Liberia - 88 deaths, 142 cases
  • Sierra Leone - 142 deaths, 337 cases
line

There had been two deaths and one new infection recorded between 6-8 July in Guinea, where it said the community transmission rate was low.

"The epidemic trend in Liberia and Sierra Leone remains precarious with high numbers of new cases and deaths being reported," it said.

The cases in Sierra Leone are centred in Kailahun and Kenema districts, and in Liberia's Lofa and Montserrado counties, the WHO said.

An MSF employee puts on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, where people infected with the Ebola virus are being treated - June 2014 The Ebola death rate in Guinea - where specialised health workers have been working since February - has slowed

Medecins Sans Frontieres said its teams in eastern Sierra Leone were "racing against time to stop the spread of the disease".

"We're under massive time pressure: the longer it takes to find and follow up with people who have come in contact with sick people, the more difficult it will be to control the outbreak," MSF emergency co-ordinator Anja Wolz said in a statement.

"We still have no idea how many villages are affected. I'm afraid we've only seen the tip of the iceberg."

The disease creates fear within communities and sick people are often stigmatised so experts believe the key to stopping the spread of the virus is to make sure affected communities understand it better.

"Families can be driven out of their villages, and sick people can be cast out to die on their own," said Ms Wolz.

The WHO gathers data on confirmed, probable and suspected cases and deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

So far in the West African outbreak there have been 888 cases.

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Ebola virus disease (EVD)
Molecular model of parts of the Ebola virus
  • Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
  • Fatality rate can reach 90%
  • Incubation period is two to 21 days
  • There is no vaccine or cure
  • Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
  • Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the virus


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kim Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 11 2014 at 12:21pm
What did the american die of if mot ebola?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Satori Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 11 2014 at 3:39pm

it's gettin ' real

12 Liberian health workers die of Ebola, others flee posts, U.S. Airlines suspends flights

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/11/1313149/-12-Liberian-health-workers-die-of-Ebola-others-flee-posts-U-S-Airlines-suspends-flights

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Ebola Spreads to Sierra Leone Capital of Freetown as Deaths Rise

By Silas Gbandia July 12, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-12/ebola-spreads-to-sierra-leone-capital-of-freetown-as-deaths-rise
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Originally posted by Kim Kim wrote:

What did the american die of if mot ebola?


Pertaining to the American who was believed to have Ebola. Witnesses claimed that
Ebola was coming out of every opening of his body. The test results proved negative
for Ebola, but the testing procedures were done improperly. The United States
authorities have taken charge of the corpse. Which I find curious.

At the time this man came down with the deadly illness, he was in Accra, Ghana where
certain scientists and investors, were meeting to discuss how, where and when they
could begin testing their Ebola drugs.

Is it possible that this new growing outbreak of Ebola, is actually the outcome of some
failed Ebola vaccination experiment gone very dangerously wrong?  Perhaps that is why
the death rate is lower, but now this violent killer can travel easier and longer then in past
outbreaks.

Of course it could all be a ruse. Maybe certain Africans are right, Ebola came with
the "Doctors." Or perhaps as some of the natives like to say, "There ain't no such thing
as Ebola."


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote onefluover Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2014 at 11:44am
Ah, perhaps the victim was Nuremberg Code #5 compliant?
"And then there were none."
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Nurenberg Code #5
  1. No experiment should be conducted where there is a prior reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote onefluover Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2014 at 2:01pm
Originally posted by Astrologic Astrologic wrote:

Nurenberg Code #5
  1. No experiment should be conducted where there is a prior reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.





So, once his identity is revealed, it would be interesting to learn if he had any background in science...?

"And then there were none."
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Johnray1 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2014 at 6:33pm
onefluover,the laws and the Nurenburg Codes were written for the winners to judge the loser by.They were not written for the winners to go by or obey.Johnray1             P.S. I would really like to know why this man or any one would develop a virus that could threaten the entire human race. Many people know about it now and there has been no attempt to go and physically take the virus and destroy it.WHY!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote onefluover Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2014 at 7:03pm
I understand that JR. They were created in response to the defendants claims that there were no rules already in place. The code is not international law, but instead survives today as a code of ethics (expected) of all governments and scientists pertaining to human experiments. In fact in the US it IS in the DHHS regulations and is law in California.

But granted, it probably doesn't hold much water anywhere else and probably is only cited selectively. Though only an abstract fool would argue against incorporating the code into international law. Which is a bit odd as to this day it has not been.

Which to me means everyone wants to reserve the right to be their own Nazis.
"And then there were none."
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onefluover, I agree 100% and I wonder about the same questions. Johnray1
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http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/07/west-africa-ebola-outbreak-nears-900-cases

West Africa Ebola outbreak nears 900 cases

An outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Western Africa that is already history's deadliest has reached 888 cases, with 44 new infections—and 21 newly reported deaths—the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update yesterday.

The new EVD infections, which include lab-confirmed, probable, and suspected cases, were reported from Jul 6 to 8. About three fourths of them are in Sierra Leone, which reported 32 new cases. Guinea reported only 1 new case.

In addition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that rumors and denial are fueling the outbreak.

'Precarious' situation

Sierra Leone reported 32 new cases and 15 new deaths, the WHO said. Disease activity has been focused in Kailahun and Kenema districts in the southeastern part of the country, both of which border Liberia.

Liberia, meanwhile, had 11 new EVD cases with 4 deaths. Its hot spots are Lofa in the far north, which borders both Sierra Leone and Guinea, and Monserrado on the Atlantic Ocean.

The WHO said in today's update, "The epidemic trend in Liberia and Sierra Leone remains precarious with high numbers of new cases and deaths being reported. . . . The respective Ministries of Health are working with WHO and its partners to step up containment measures."

In the WHO's previous update, released Jul 8, Sierra Leone had 34 new cases and Liberia 16.

That situation contrasts with Guinea, which reported just 1 new EVD case, along with 2 newly reported deaths. Guinea had reported no cases in the Jul 8 WHO update.

Outbreak totals for the three countries are: Guinea, 409 cases and 309 deaths; Sierra Leone, 337 cases and 142 deaths; and Liberia, 142 cases and 88 deaths. Of the 888 total cases, 539 so far have been fatal, a 61% case-fatality rate.

"WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone based on the current information available for this event," the agency reiterated in its update.

Misconceptions as fuel

UNICEF said today that it is focusing on combating rumors, fears, and misconceptions about the EVD outbreak.

"Rumours and denial are fueling the spread of Ebola and putting even more lives at risk," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa, in a UNICEF news release. "Some people still deny that the disease is real. Others believe that it doesn't have to be treated.

"If we are to break the chain of Ebola transmission, it is crucial to combat the fear surrounding it and earn the trust of communities," Fontaine continued. "We have to knock on every door, visit every market, and spread the word in every church and every mosque. To do so, we urgently need more people, more funds, more partners."

UNICEF is stepping up its efforts in four West African countries in addition to those reporting EVD cases—Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, and Gambia—to prevent further spread of the virus. It is focusing on mobile messaging and other communication initiatives.

ECDC update

In its weekly communicable disease threats report today, the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) reported on a cluster of cases in Guinea with an unexpectedly high survival rate.

"Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) [Doctors Without Borders] reported that 16 of the 21 EVD cases admitted to its treatment centre in Telimele in northern Guinea made a full recovery, compared with only 20-40 per cent of victims in Gueckedou," said the ECDC.

"This outlier event is being investigated. An unusually high false positive rate for the diagnostic test used in Telimele is among the possible explanations.

"Other explanations include a mutation of the virus and genetic resistance to the disease in the local population. Because the sample size is small, the event could also be explained by random variation in disease outcome."

The ECDC also called the risk of infection for international travelers very low "since most human infections result from direct contact with the bodily fluids or secretions of infected patients, particularly in hospitals (nosocomial transmission) and as a result of unsafe procedures, use of contaminated medical devices (including needles and syringes) and unprotected exposure to contaminated bodily fluids."

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http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2014/07/west-africa-ebola-outbreak-nears-900-cases

West Africa Ebola outbreak nears 900 cases

An outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Western Africa that is already history's deadliest has reached 888 cases, with 44 new infections—and 21 newly reported deaths—the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update yesterday.

The new EVD infections, which include lab-confirmed, probable, and suspected cases, were reported from Jul 6 to 8. About three fourths of them are in Sierra Leone, which reported 32 new cases. Guinea reported only 1 new case.

In addition, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that rumors and denial are fueling the outbreak.

'Precarious' situation

Sierra Leone reported 32 new cases and 15 new deaths, the WHO said. Disease activity has been focused in Kailahun and Kenema districts in the southeastern part of the country, both of which border Liberia.

Liberia, meanwhile, had 11 new EVD cases with 4 deaths. Its hot spots are Lofa in the far north, which borders both Sierra Leone and Guinea, and Monserrado on the Atlantic Ocean.

The WHO said in today's update, "The epidemic trend in Liberia and Sierra Leone remains precarious with high numbers of new cases and deaths being reported. . . . The respective Ministries of Health are working with WHO and its partners to step up containment measures."

In the WHO's previous update, released Jul 8, Sierra Leone had 34 new cases and Liberia 16.

That situation contrasts with Guinea, which reported just 1 new EVD case, along with 2 newly reported deaths. Guinea had reported no cases in the Jul 8 WHO update.

Outbreak totals for the three countries are: Guinea, 409 cases and 309 deaths; Sierra Leone, 337 cases and 142 deaths; and Liberia, 142 cases and 88 deaths. Of the 888 total cases, 539 so far have been fatal, a 61% case-fatality rate.

"WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Guinea, Liberia, or Sierra Leone based on the current information available for this event," the agency reiterated in its update.

Misconceptions as fuel

UNICEF said today that it is focusing on combating rumors, fears, and misconceptions about the EVD outbreak.

"Rumours and denial are fueling the spread of Ebola and putting even more lives at risk," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF regional director for West and Central Africa, in a UNICEF news release. "Some people still deny that the disease is real. Others believe that it doesn't have to be treated.

"If we are to break the chain of Ebola transmission, it is crucial to combat the fear surrounding it and earn the trust of communities," Fontaine continued. "We have to knock on every door, visit every market, and spread the word in every church and every mosque. To do so, we urgently need more people, more funds, more partners."

UNICEF is stepping up its efforts in four West African countries in addition to those reporting EVD cases—Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, and Gambia—to prevent further spread of the virus. It is focusing on mobile messaging and other communication initiatives.

ECDC update

In its weekly communicable disease threats report today, the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) reported on a cluster of cases in Guinea with an unexpectedly high survival rate.

"Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) [Doctors Without Borders] reported that 16 of the 21 EVD cases admitted to its treatment centre in Telimele in northern Guinea made a full recovery, compared with only 20-40 per cent of victims in Gueckedou," said the ECDC.

"This outlier event is being investigated. An unusually high false positive rate for the diagnostic test used in Telimele is among the possible explanations.

"Other explanations include a mutation of the virus and genetic resistance to the disease in the local population. Because the sample size is small, the event could also be explained by random variation in disease outcome."

The ECDC also called the risk of infection for international travelers very low "since most human infections result from direct contact with the bodily fluids or secretions of infected patients, particularly in hospitals (nosocomial transmission) and as a result of unsafe procedures, use of contaminated medical devices (including needles and syringes) and unprotected exposure to contaminated bodily fluids."

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http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/13/health-ebola-westafrica-idINL6N0PO0V220140713


As Ebola stalks West Africa, medics fight mistrust, hostility


By Saliou Samb and Adam Bailes

CONAKRY Guinea/KENEMA Sierra Leone Sun Jul 13, 2014 11:36am EDT



(Reuters) - Governments and health agencies trying to contain the world's deadliest ever Ebola epidemic in West Africa fear the contagion could be worse than reported because suspicious locals are chasing away health workers and shunning treatment.

From Guinea, where the four-month-old outbreak claimed the first of more than 500 lives, to Sierra Leone, scores of patients are hiding away, believing hospitalization is a "death sentence".

In Guinea's southeastern Forest Region some terrified villagers are shutting off their communities to medical workers, even blocking roads and downing bridges.

Over the border in Liberia's Lofa County, health workers trying to screen two communities for the deadly disease were chased off by locals armed with cutlasses, knives, and stones, according to an internal U.N. report seen by Reuters.

In eastern Sierra Leone, police had to fire tear gas to stop relatives trying to recover bodies of Ebola victims for family burial - a serious contagion risk - amid popular suspicions the cadavers might be used for experiments or macabre rituals.

"We are seeing a lot of mistrust, intimidation and hostility from part of the population," Marc Poncin, emergency coordinator for medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Guinea, told Reuters.

The MSF treatment center at Gueckedou, 650 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of Conakry, was monitoring only one suspected case. Two weeks ago it had been treating around 25 Ebola patients.

But this was not, Poncin warned, because the disease was waning, but because he believed "dozens" of suspected cases were hiding out from medical teams in the surrounding forest region.

"What we are now seeing are villages closing themselves off, not allowing us to enter, sick people hidden in the community. They don't come and seek healthcare any more," he said.

This was increasing the risk of further propagation, adding to the challenge for medical authorities of an unprecedented epidemic spread across three nations that threatens one of the poorest regions of the world. Weak local health systems and porous national borders were magnifying the infection risk.

The World Health Organization reported on Friday a total of 888 Ebola cases including 539 deaths since February, saying the epidemic had surged in Liberia and Sierra Leone and calling the situation "precarious". [ID:nL6N0PM1RO]

To handle the increased Sierra Leone cases, MSF was doubling the number of beds at its treatment center in Kailahun. It warned it was racing against time to stop the spread of the disease and feared it was just seeing "the tip of the iceberg".

West African governments who met under WHO auspices earlier this month agreed a coordinated regional strategy but experts say more is needed in terms of effort, cooperation and funds.

"If we are to break the chain of Ebola transmission, it is crucial to combat the fear surrounding it and earn the trust of communities," said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

"We have to knock on every door, visit every market and spread the word in every church and every mosque," he added.

"More people, more funds, more partners" were urgently needed, the U.N. children's agency said.

"LIKE A DEATH SENTENCE"

Ebola causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhea and was first detected in then Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, in the mid-1970s. Spread through contact with blood and body fluids of infected people or animals, it is one of the world's deadliest viruses, killing up to 90 percent of those infected.

Effective treatment needs cooperation from local communities to allow screening and contact-tracing of suspected cases, and then their isolation in properly equipped treatment centers.

But Poncin said people in Gueckedou were now shunning the center there, where only 2 in 10 infected patients survived the disease.

"People see people arrive more or less OK and then they die there. So they start to mistrust the treatment center," he said.

It was a similar story in Kenema in eastern Sierra Leone. "They think if you go to the hospital, you will die, like Ebola is a death sentence," said Red Cross worker Augusta Boima.

In contrast, at a treatment center in Telimele in north Guinea, where more trusting patients had come forward earlier, the recovery rate was higher, over 75 percent, Poncin said.

At roads in and out of Kenema, a still bustling trading town, police and health authorities have set up checkpoints, questioning travelers and checking temperatures for fever.

"People say after they check you they will take you to the hospital and you will not come out again. So this is why so many people are afraid, why they will not come here," a fish trader at the checkpoint, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

He complained his fish trade was "very bad", because people were avoiding coming to town, fearful of screening.

Across the three affected countries, 'outreach' teams are explaining the risks of Ebola and the need for treatment.

But they are often not welcome.

At one village in Guinea's forested Gueckedou prefecture, locals even dismantled a bridge to block health workers' vehicles, Poncin said, On another occasion, an MSF car was surrounded by threatening youths who came out of the forest.

In Liberia's Lofa County, health workers who visited two communities, Bolongoidu and Sarkonnedu in Voinjama district, were intercepted by village elders and a mob of angry residents.

"They said the villagers were not interested in messages on Ebola because as far as they were concerned Ebola does not exist and that they should leave immediately or they would be beaten up," was how the incident was reported back to the U.N. mission.

"BODIES IN BAGS"

Poncin said that in Guinea's southeastern forest region, where age-old animist beliefs exist side-by-side with imported Christianity, many locals shunned the modern world and its medicine, preferring instead to rely on traditional healers.

This had led to some associating Ebola with witchcraft and sorcery, or branding it an evil brought in by foreigners.

Because of contagion risk, authorities say the cadavers of Ebola victims must be disposed of securely. But families in West Africa, where the washing of the deceased by family members is part of traditional burials, often struggle to understand this.

"For us to now have to give our beloved dead relatives away to people who will wrap them in a plastic bag and dump them in a grave without us washing and honoring them is hard to stomach," a traditional Sierra Leone leader said, asking not to be named.

This incomprehension can tap into deeper fears, still common in West Africa, of body parts being used for ritual or magic.

"Putting people in body bags creates a lot of suspicion in the minds of people; they think parts of the body are being cut, and that's why the body is not being allowed to be displayed," said Kenema health officer Sheku Bockarie.

While daily life goes on in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, whose people have suffered years of conflict, poverty and disease, the Ebola fears are affecting some social habits.

"We have decided to ask our children to not play with any other child because we do not know who is the carrier. Also, I do not shake hands. I only speak and wave," said Liberian mother Marie Wleh in Logan Town, Monrovia.

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http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/ebola-virus-spreading-from-guinea-to-mali/

what is strange is how the SEVEN countries infected last march/ april have dropped off the radar. not a peep
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dutch Josh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2014 at 1:50am
The guardian-article is from april 6. Interesting; Saudi Arabia has also announced the suspension of visas for Muslim pilgrims from Liberia and Guinea. This move is meant to decrease the spread of the deadly virus that causes haemorrhagic fever.
Read more at http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/ebola-virus-spreading-from-guinea-to-mali/#7YjA1MqpxRGCroML.99
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http://www.boston.com/health/2014/07/14/ebola-crisis-west-africa-deepens-dead/TNfrNCCWjDyrDgd2PVFezK/s

Ebola Crisis in West Africa Deepens; 500+ Dead

                                    In this photo taken on July 8, 2014, Ebola advocacy group Crusaders for Peace, spokesperson Juli Endee, right, educates people on the deadly virus in Paynesville, east of the city  Monrovia, Liberia. Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose, had never before been seen in this part of West Africa where medical clinics are few and far between. The disease has turned up in at least two other countries _ Liberia and Sierra Leone _ and 539 deaths have been attributed to the outbreak that is now the largest on record. (AP Photo/Jonathan Paye-Layleh)                                In this photo taken on July 8, 2014, Ebola advocacy group Crusaders for Peace, spokesperson Juli Endee, right, educates people on the deadly virus in Paynesville, east of the city Monrovia, Liberia. Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose, had never before been seen in this part of West Africa where medical clinics are few and far between. The disease has turned up in at least two other countries _ Liberia and Sierra Leone _ and 539 deaths have been attributed to the outbreak that is now the largest on record. (AP Photo/Jonathan Paye-Layleh) Credit: The Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Deep in the forests of southern Guinea, the first victims fell ill with high fevers. People assumed it was the perennial killer malaria and had no reason to fear touching the bodies, as is the custom in traditional funerals.

Some desperate relatives brought their loved ones to the distant capital in search of better medical care, unknowingly spreading what ultimately was discovered to be Ebola, one of the world’s most deadly diseases.

Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that can cause its victims to bleed from the ears and nose, had never before been seen in this part of West Africa where medical clinics are few and far between. The disease has turned up in at least two other countries — Liberia and Sierra Leone — and 539 deaths have been attributed to the outbreak that is now the largest on record.

The key to halting Ebola is isolating the sick, but fear and panic have sent some patients into hiding, complicating efforts to stop its spread. Ebola has reached the capitals of all three countries, and the World Health Organization reported 44 new cases including 21 deaths on Friday.

There has been ‘‘a gross misjudgment across the board in gauging the severity and scale of damage the current Ebola outbreak can unleash,’’ the aid group Plan International warned earlier this month.

‘‘There are no cases from outside Africa to date. The threat of it spreading though is very much there,’’ said Dr. Unni Krishnan, head of disaster preparedness and response for the aid group.

Preachers are calling for divine intervention, and panicked residents in remote areas have on multiple occasions attacked the very health workers sent to help them. In one town in Sierra Leone, residents partially burned down a treatment center over fears that the drugs given to victims were actually causing the disease.

Activists are trying to spread awareness in the countryside where literacy is low, even through a song penned about Ebola.

‘‘It has no cure, but it can be prevented; let us fight it together. Let’s protect ourselves, our families and our nation,’’ sings the chorus.

‘‘Do not touch people with the signs of Ebola,’’ sings musician and activist Juli Endee. ‘‘Don’t eat bush meat. Don’t play with monkey and baboons. Plums that bats have bitten or half-eaten, don’t eat them.’’

Guinea first notified WHO about the emergence of Ebola in March and soon after cases were reported in neighboring Liberia. Two months later there were hopes that the outbreak was waning, but then people began falling ill in Sierra Leone.

Doctors Without Borders says it fears the number of patients now being treated in Sierra Leone could be ‘‘just the tip of the iceberg.’’ Nearly 40 were reported in a single village in the country’s east.

‘‘We’re under massive time pressure: The longer it takes to find and follow up with people who have come in contact with sick people, the more difficult it will be to control the outbreak,’’ said Anja Wolz, emergency coordinator for the group, also referred to by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres.

This Ebola virus is a new strain and did not spread to West Africa from previous outbreaks in Uganda and Congo, researchers say. Many believe it is linked to the human consumption of bats carrying the virus. Many of those who have fallen ill in the current outbreak are family members of victims and the health workers who treated them.

There is no cure and no vaccine for Ebola, and those who have survived managed to do so only by receiving rehydration and other supportive treatment. Ebola’s high fatality rate means many of those brought to health clinics have been merely kept as comfortable as possible in quarantine as they await death. As a result, some families have been afraid to take sick loved ones to the clinics.

‘‘Let this warning go out: Anyone found or reported to be holding suspected Ebola cases in homes or prayer houses can be prosecuted under the law of Liberia,’’ President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stated recently.

Her comments came just days after Sierra Leone issued a similar warning, saying some patients had discharged themselves from the hospital and had gone into hiding.

At the airport in Guinea’s capital, departing passengers must undergo temperature screening, and those with a fever are pulled aside for further evaluation. Still, the stigma of Ebola follows Guineans well outside the region.

‘‘The police treated us like we were aliens. They said they didn’t want us in their country because of the disease affecting Guinea,’’ says Tafsir Sow, a businessman who was briefly detained at the airport in Casablanca, Morocco before continuing on to Paris. ‘‘I had tears in my eyes.’’

Still, WHO health officials are hopeful they will be able to get the situation under control in the next several weeks. A recent conference in the capital of Ghana brought together health authorities from across the affected areas, and the countries agreed on a common approach to fight Ebola.

‘‘When you have it spread, of course it’s moving in the wrong direction,’’ said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general for health security and environment. ‘‘You want to see the number of infections going down. So we really have to redouble our efforts. But saying that it’s out of control makes it sound like there are no solutions. This is a virus for which there are very clear solutions.’’


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http://allafrica.com/stories/201407141435.html

Liberia: Suspected Ebola Patient Dies At JFK - Several Nurses, Others Abandon Work

By Obediah Johnson, 14 July 2014

Normal working and medical activities at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center were on Friday, July 11, 2014 halted for several hours as a result of the death of a suspected Ebola patient at the hospital.

Ebola is a deadly disease that has no cure.

Located in Sinkor, Monrovia the JFK is the largest referral hospital in Liberia.

A pregnant woman suspected of contracting the Ebola virus died during the late evening hours of Thursday, July 10, 2014 at the Emergency Ward of the hospital.

Some patients admitted at the hospital alleged that both medical doctors and nurses abandoned them when the news broke out that a patient suspected of contracting the deadly Ebola virus had died.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the patients said most of the nurses that were on duty during the night were seen without safety gears.

They further alleged that the nurses abandoned their duties and responsibilities for fear of coming in contact with the deadly virus.

According to them, the alleged abandonment by boththe medical doctors and nurses made their condition to worsen.

"You are asking me if I am working; just go to the ER, the woman that died from Ebola yesterday is there. You can go and see for yourself because press people like to make sure," a nurse who was walking out of the JFK compound asserted when quizzed by our reporter who had gone to the hospital upon getting the scoop.

At the JFK, our reporter observed that authorities of the hospital, including medical doctors were seen moving from one point to another in a confused state.

According to him, some nurses were being counseled and encouraged by some officials of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to continue their duties and responsibilities.

He said many of the nurses were even refusing to "shake hands or come in body contact" with some of their colleagues or bosses.

Our reporter said the death of the suspected Ebola patient at the hospital also compelled many family members, friends and loved ones of patients admitted to request authorities of the hospital to release their respective patients.

But their request was rejected by the JFK authorities.

He several patients, who were being transferred to the hospital, were taking elsewhere by their family members or friends for fear of contracting the virus at the JFK.

When contacted, the Public Relation Officer of the hospital, Daylue Goah, confirmed the death of the unidentified pregnant woman.

He told reporters that prior to her death, the woman was showing symptoms of the Ebola virus.

He said the woman was later taken to the isolation center of the hospital.

Mr. Goah noted that the fear amongst the nurses cannot be ruled out, saying the nurses are still "doing their work."

He disclosed that specimen of the dead lady would be sent to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for laboratory assessment to establish whether or not she (pregnant woman) died from Ebola.

Meanwhile, several family members have expressed fear and concern over the wellbeing of their relatives admitted at the hospital.

They termed as "risky" the abandonment of their relatives and friends by medical practitioners at the JFK.

"Only the patients are in the hospital. They send for the MOHSW people to come and take the body from here; up to now they are not here. We are also afraid because, we don't know what is happening to them inside there.

So, we want them to release our patients so we can take them elsewhere because, the doctors and nurses too are running away," averred one Mr. Moses Laftey.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Utwig Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2014 at 3:01pm
Astro, its good to see you posting again!

Utwig.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 14 2014 at 4:31pm
Originally posted by Utwig Utwig wrote:

Astro, its good to see you posting again!



Agreed!
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Originally posted by Utwig Utwig wrote:

Astro, its good to see you posting again!

Utwig.


Thank you Utwig. Hopefully it is beneficial to you and your readers.
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Thanks Technophobe. It is good to see you back.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-africa-ebola-outbreak-20140715,0,6193858.story

WHO: Ebola outbreak has killed more than 600


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WHO report 85 new cases and 68 deaths for a total for the West Africa outbreak of 964 cases and 603 deaths.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_07_15_ebola/en/
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WHO launches regional Ebola response centre

WHO launches regional Ebola response centre
Credits: WHO/S. Saporito
16 July 2014 -- In response to continuing reports of new cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, WHO today activated a Sub-regional Outbreak Coordination Centre in Conakry, Guinea. The Centre will consolidate and harmonize the technical support being provided to West African countries affected by the outbreak. It will also help to mobilize resources for the response.
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The deadly Ebola virus that’s killed more than 600 people so far in West Africa may have been smoldering there for years and has almost certainly sickened people who thought they had something else, researchers say.

A new study of blood samples from people being treated for a serious, viral-like illness in years past in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia suggests some of them could have been infected with Ebola. Now researchers are digging deeper to see if the virus has always been lurking there, just undetected.

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It’s not a perfect test — the blood samples were several years old and had to be heat-treated so the researchers would be safe — but it’s a lead worth following up, said Randal Schoepp of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) team that did the research.

Horrifying Outbreak: What Makes Ebola so Deadly?

NBCNews.com

“It had been circulating there for a long time,” Schoepp told NBC News. “It just hadn’t gotten out of control or the right conditions weren’t there.”

“It had been circulating there for a long time."

Other researchers said the tests used are not 100 percent reliable, and more testing will be needed to see if they reflect what’s really happening. But it would be unlikely for a virus such as Ebola to appear completely out of the blue in a region. Experts suspect bats and perhaps other animals, too, carry the virus.

“It makes us realize that you don’t have to see an outbreak (to know a virus is circulating in an area),” Schoepp said. “In Africa, it is easy for a disease to smolder because there is so much disease.”

Ebola has killed at least 613 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and West Africa in an outbreak that started in spring, according to the World Health Organization. It’s been diagnosed in 982, making for a mortality rate of more than 60 percent.

The WHO and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) both say the outbreak is out of control. It killed 25 out of 28 nurses in a single hospital in Sierra Leone and patients are disappearing into the forest rather than seek treatment.

Ebola had never been seen in West Africa before, although there are plenty of other nasty infections, from malaria to dengue and, especially, Lassa fever. Lassa fever is caused by a virus unrelated to the one that causes Ebola but causes similar symptoms, include high fever, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.

Lassa is a far bigger problem than Ebola — it infects between 100,000 and 300,000 people a year in West Africa, killing 5,000, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So when someone shows up with a fever in West Africa, Lassa is a prime suspect.

Several U.S.-based organizations have been studying Lassa in Sierra Leone in the decade since a civil war there ended. But not everyone has Lassa or malaria — the majority of infections are never diagnosed.

“Generally only 30 percent to 40 percent of samples tested are positive for Lassa virus,” Schoepp’s team wrote in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Schoepp’s team looked at blood samples taken from 253 people cleared of both Lassa and malaria between 2006 and 2008. “Most samples were from acutely ill patients from eastern Sierra Leone; some were submitted from Liberia and a few from Guinea,” they wrote.

Image: A test showed that patients who had mysterious fevers in Sierra Leone in 2006 in fact had Ebola. The  color indicates antibodies to Ebola. Nadia Wauquier, PhD/Metabiota / USAMRIID
A test showed that patients who had mysterious fevers in Sierra Leone in 2006 in fact had Ebola. The blue-green color indicates antibodies to Ebola.

They found lots of evidence that people were suffering from dengue fever, and chikungunya — both of which are carried by mosquitoes and both of which have been in the news because they are also spreading in the Western Hemisphere. To their surprise, they also found evidence people had been infected with Ebola and the related Marburg virus. Nearly 9 percent of the samples that were clear of everything else tested positive for antibodies to Ebola and nearly 4 percent to Marburg.

That doesn’t mean 9 percent of everyone sick with fever has Ebola, but it does suggest that at least a few people with mystery fevers may have had Ebola. More testing strengthened the evidence, Schoepp said. Likely no one noticed because no one had looked for Ebola before.

“It is often the case that if you look hard enough, you find something almost everywhere,” he said.

WHO officials say Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia lack a good public health infrastructure. Hospitals are poorly staffed and have little equipment. There’s no one to test most sick people to see what they have.

Deadly Ebola Virus is 'Out of Control'

NBC News

But there are good reasons to try and find out what illnesses are circulating. Lassa can be treated with an antiviral called ribavirin. There’s no specific treatment for Ebola, and it’s important to isolate patients and take strict precautions, including the use of gloves and masks, when treating them. Malaria and dengue aren’t passed person-to-person so patients with those infections do not need to be isolated.

“You can see the relief on the patient’s face when you can tell them, ‘No you are not infected. You can go home and see your family’,” Schoepp said.

“There is a huge social stigma to Lassa infections and now Ebola infections. Even if they survive, there is a good chance they’ll be kicked out of their village. They’ll be shunned by their family.”

Schoepp says his study also shows there is still a lot of mysterious illness in West Africa. “This whole study I did, we could only attribute a possible cause to 28 percent of these samples,” he said. “That means we are still looking at a couple of hundred samples that we have no way of knowing what was making them really, really sick.”

“You can see the relief on the patient’s face when you can tell them, ‘No you are not infected'."

The most reliable testing is done when people first get sick. These tests can detect actual virus circulating in the body. By the time most people in West Africa show up at a clinic or hospital with a viral disease, they’ve been sick a few days and the virus itself may not be easy to find in the blood any more.

“Virus hunting is not as easy as people think,” Schoepp said.

Ebola had only been seen in central Africa and parts of eastern and southern Africa before. The biggest previous outbreak affected 425 people in Uganda in 2000, killing 224 of them. This one is different because it’s crossed borders and it affecting both urban and rural areas.

First published July 20th 2014, 2:02 pm

Source and video:   http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/ebola-may-have-been-smoldering-years-study-says-n158641
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MYTH AND IGNORANCE AIDING SPREAD

“I don’t believe in Ebola,” Craig Manning’s driver told him as he chauffeured the viral emergency specialist through Freetown, Sierra Leone, where infection rates are rising. The man came from a rural part of the country where people were already dying from the virus.


The epidemic, the deadliest on record, continues to batter Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, with 85 new cases and 68 deaths reported in four days earlier this month, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Sierra Leone bore the brunt of new infections and deaths, with 49 new cases and 52 deaths reported. The total number of cases in West Africa stands at 982, with 613 deaths as of 17 July.

Yet, as the Ebola virus continues to spread, so do the rumours. Some say you can contract Ebola from a motorcycle helmet. Others say you can cure the deadly virus by drinking Nescafé mixed with cocoa and sugar – or with two large onions.

It’s Mr Manning’s job to take onions out of the equation. A health communications strategist with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Mr Manning was sent to Guinea at the first outbreak of the Ebola crisis in March. When one of his colleagues, Pierre Roland, an expert on Ebola, gave a presentation at the US Embassy in Conakry about mitigating risks of transmission, Mr Manning recorded him. He then had the edited 30-second snippets translated into 10 local languages and broadcast on radio and television.

When the virus spread to Sierra Leone, Mr Manning teamed up with BBC Media Action to bring together radio station managers to help spread the word.

Mr Manning said ensuring local populations understand Ebola is essential. For instance, in areas where the virus has spread, relatives wash bodies by hand before funerals, putting families at risk.

“People do not easily accept the idea that teams will take their deceased loved one, put them in a bag and bury them somewhere different,” Manning said.

This balance demands communication, according to the WHO spokesman Daniel Epstein. “There are a set of beliefs and myths that impede our messages about treatment,” he said.

Médecins Sans Frontières has been unable to gain access to some affected areas because of hostility from the people there. Local communities fear outsiders are bringing the virus with them or want to exterminate the infected, since so few who receive treatment return alive.


Source:   http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-myths-help-spread-deadly-disease-9617518.html

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Originally posted by Technophobe Technophobe wrote:

The deadly Ebola virus that’s killed more than 600 people so far in West Africa may have been smoldering there for years and has almost certainly sickened people who thought they had something else, researchers say.

Thanks, interesting stuff!  

These jungle viral diseases rarely seem to just suddenly happen.  HIV AIDS had been simmering in Africa, likely for decades if not centuries, before it "broke out" and caused infections in the USA and elsewhere.

It seems that the source of a lot of these are the butchering of "bush meat" for human consumption. 

AIDS seems to have originated from chimps, and Ebola is likely carried by a species of fruit bat, both of which are consumed.  My guess is that this outbreak is far from being contained.  

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Following up on my previous post - folks, don't eat the fruit bat soup!! 


It said curbing human-to-human transmission was the most important focus for governments and international health agencies.


It said FAO was working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness of the transmission risks from wildlife among rural communities that hunt for bushmeat-or meat obtained from the forests – to supplement their diets and income.


The statement said these communities risk future spill-over from species that can carry the virus, including fruit bats, some primates, and duikers.


“We are not suggesting that people stop hunting altogether, which isn’t realistic,” said FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth.


“But communities need clear advice on the need not to touch dead animals or to sell or eat the meat of any animal that they find already dead. They should also avoid hunting animals that are sick or behaving strangely, as this is another red flag.”


Fruit bats – usually eaten dried or in a spicy soup – are thought to be the most likely reservoir species for the virus, which they can carry without developing clinical signs of the disease, and should be avoided altogether, according to FAO.


“The virus is killed when meat is cooked at a high temperature or heavily smoked, but anyone who handles, skins or butchers an infected wild animal is at risk of contracting the virus,” Lubroth said.


The statement said several governments in the region had attempted to outlaw the sale and consumption of bushmeat, bans have proved impossible to enforce and have met with suspicion from rural communities.

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Sierra Leone religious leaders criticise government handling of Ebola

BY UMARU FOFANA

FREETOWN Mon Jul 21, 2014 6:34pm BST

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Health workers take blood samples for Ebola virus testing at a screening tent in the local government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, June 30, 2014.  REUTERS/Tommy Trenchard

Health workers take blood samples for Ebola virus testing at a screening tent in the local government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, June 30, 2014.

CREDIT: REUTERS/TOMMY TRENCHARD

(Reuters) - Religious leaders in Sierra Leone have criticised the government's handling of an Ebola outbreak that has killed 194 people in the West Africa country, saying a lack of information was prompting rural communities to shun medical help.

Health authorities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are struggling to contain the worst outbreak of the deadly epidemic which has killed some 603 people since early this year, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Bishop John Yambasu, chairman of an interfaith task force, said he was "seriously disappointed" the government had failed to declare a public health emergency and pump more resources into the fight against Ebola, which has infected 400 people in the country.

The highest number of deaths in recent weeks had been recorded in Sierra Leone, the WHO said. It warned of resistance from remote rural communities to allowing access to doctors amid fears that outsiders were spreading the disease.

"Every day in this country the number of new cases is increasing. To us as religious leaders that is unacceptable," Yambasu, head of the United Methodist Church of Sierra Leone, told Reuters. He said the government was too concerned by the "political connotations" of declaring an emergency.  

Health Minister Miatta Kargbo has said the Ebola outbreak is "a serious matter" but has not reached emergency levels.

Ebola causes fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea and was first detected in Democratic Republic of Congo in the mid-1970s. Spread through contact with blood and bodily fluids, it is one of the deadliest viruses, killing up to 90 percent of those infected, and has no known cure.

NURSES STRIKE

Dozens of nurses at a government hospital in eastern Sierra Leone town of Kenema went on an indefinite strike on Monday following the death of three of their colleagues on Sunday. All three were suspected to have been infected with the deathly virus.

The Kenema hospital has the only testing centre in the country for the haemorrhagic fever and holds the highest number of patients of the outbreak.

Mohamed Sheriff, a spokesman for the nurses, said they were demanding among other things the "immediate relocation to an isolated area of the Ebola ward and its takeover by the French medical agency, MSF".

The Ebola wards are situated inside the Kenema hospital compound which the striking workers say poses a health risk to them and non-Ebola patients.

Sierra Leone's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brima Kargbo said the government was looking into the nurses' grievances.

Dozens of laboratory technicians at Sierra Leone's only Ebola-testing facility went on strike last week over a $20 monthly risk premium which they were promised but never paid.

Yambasu said that in Kailahun in eastern Sierra Leone - the epicentre of the outbreak - locals had dug trenches to bar ambulances and police from accessing their communities. Many locals regard being taken to an isolation ward as a death sentence.

"It is likely that people are dying in the bush" due to lack of information about the disease, he said, adding that leaving those infected in their communities was encouraging the virus to spread.

Yambasu said religious leaders would preach in their churches and mosques for a change of attitude towards the disease and would visit the centre of the outbreak and call for change.

Sierra Leone's religious leaders played a leading role in ending a brutal 1991-2002 civil war.

"It is as a result of our experiences of the past that we have invited ourselves into this Ebola struggle," he said.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 21 2014 at 8:22pm
I hate to say this but until Ebola can be wide spread in the "Western World" no one seems to really care.

The other problem is no one seems to be able to educate these people. White man has been over in Africa for over 100 years trying to educate these people and it has not worked.

Something other that what has been going on is going to have to intervene to save the people in Africa from Ebola. What that is I am not sure.   
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 21 2014 at 9:58pm
Border closure is the answer.
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Originally posted by Elver Elver wrote:

Border closure is the answer.

Nah, viruses don't pay much attention to borders.  Chikungunya, West Nile etc. come to mind.

If this thing is asymptomatic in fruit bats, it isn't a stretch for this to become endemic in other countries.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Elver Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 22 2014 at 4:52pm
It's a for sure thing that viruses won't pay attention to borders if they can go person to person from one country to the next. I don't think it is a stretch for this to spread to other countries considering that people come and go all the time from the infected areas. Would you like to take a chance on flying out of west Africa or would you rather fly within the continental U.S. or Europe?
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/health-ebola-nigeria-idUSL6N0PZ5VG20140724

UPDATE 3-Liberian man in Lagos being tested for Ebola

Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:28pm EDT



* Man collapsed at Lagos international airport

* Lagos is a city of 21 million people

By Chijioke Ohuocha

LAGOS, July 24 (Reuters) - A Liberian man in his 40s is being tested for the deadly Ebola virus in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos, a mega-city of 21 million people, the Lagos State Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak in February, straining their flimsy healthcare systems despite international help.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva confirmed Nigeria had "one suspect case" and said samples had been sent to a WHO lab for testing.

"The Nigerian Ministry of Health has implemented control measures in the meantime," he told Reuters.

If confirmed, the case would be the first on record of one of the world's deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and, with 170 million people, its most populous country.

Nigeria also has some of the continent's least adequate healthcare infrastructure for a nation of its size, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money as Africa's biggest producer of crude.

The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government, Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference the man had collapsed on arrival at Lagos airport from Liberia on Sunday. He was rushed to hospital and put in an isolation ward, she said.

"The patient was admitted and detained on suspicion of possible EBV (Ebola virus) infection, while blood sample collection and testing was initiated," she said in her statement, adding that "results are pending."

Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University of Reading, said it was important to note that Ebola is one of a number of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fever, and that others, including Lassa fever virus and Dengue virus, could turn out to be the diagnosis in this case.

"Some of these other, more common haemorrhagic fever viruses have already been the cause of false alarms in the ongoing west African Ebola outbreak," Neuman told Reuters in London.

"For now, it is important that we wait for the lab results on the patient in Lagos," he added. "Even if Ebola is confirmed, this will be a cause for concern, not panic. Ebola spreads slowly, and can be contained by quarantining suspected cases immediately in hospitals."

The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea's remote southeast and has since spread across the region's poorly controlled borders. Symptoms of the highly infectious disease are diarrhoea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding.

Adeshina said Lagos state authorities had requested a flight manifest and would be contacting all the other passengers to warn them of the risk. They would also be tracing any places the passenger had been, and had already distributed protective clothing to health workers, she said. (Writing by Tim Cocks, additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, editing by Jeremy Gaunt and Larry King)

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http://www.dw.de/ebola-out-of-control-in-west-africa/a-17807222

Ebola 'out of control' in West Africa

The doctor leading the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone has himself caught the disease. The epidemic has claimed the lives of more than 600 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year.

Sierra Leone's Health Minister, Miatta Kargbo has hailed Dr Cheik Humar Khan, who contracted Ebola disease while caring for patients, as a national hero. He paid tribute to the sacrifices the physician had made during the current outbreak. Humar Kahn is now being treated at a center run by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. The charity said Sierra Leone has now become an epicenter of the epidemic. It has recorded 454 of the 1,093 Ebola cases registered so far in West Africa.

The epidemic is turning into a disaster for West Africa. In this latest outbreak, the virus was first discovered in this part of the continent at the end 2013. It was first spotted in Guinea and has in the meantime also been found in Sierra Leone and Liberia as well. "The epidemic is out of control," said Bart Janssens, director of operations for the medical charity Doctors Without Borders. "With the large number of suspected cases, there is a real danger that the epidemic could spread to other areas as well"

In Liberia, the Ebola virus has recently spread to four additional districts, raising the total number of affected regions to seven out of the country's 15, said Torbert Nyenswah from the ministry of health in the capital Monrovia.

At least 105 people have died of Ebola in Liberia since March and the death toll for the whole of West Africa in mid-July stood at 603. It continues to climb.

In1976, in what was then Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), an Ebola epidemic claimed 208 lives. This was when the Ebola virus was first discovered and given its name. Since then Central Africa has experienced smaller outbreaks of the deadly disease. But this current outbreak, which has crossed three national borders, is posing quite a different, more serious challenge to health workers.

Monkey and rat meat off the menu

The governments of the three countries have been trying to prevent the disease from spreading any further. In Guinea, authorities have banned the sale and consumption of wild animals. Monkeys, bats, antelope and rats are a delicacy there, but they are also potential carriers of the virus. People have been travelling to the affected areas from other parts of the country in order to buy the meat of wild animals. Such behavior could encourage the spread of the disease.

Ebola - deadly disease strikes again

Stephan Becker, director of the institute of virology at the University of Marburg, Germany, believes that burial rituals could also be responsible for the spread of the disease. In many African countries, the deceased are normally washed and embraced before they are buried. In this manner, the mourners could easily catch the disease, because the virus is transmitted via contact with blood and other body fluids.

Distrust among the population

Becker's staff have been helping to fight Ebola in West Africa for some months now. As part of their work for the European Mobile Laboratory Project, the German scientists visit villages and carry out tests on the sick and on the recently deceased. The purpose is to prevent new infections and so help curb the epidemic. If someone is infected then he or she should preferably not be treated at home, but at a quarantine facility. An infected corpse has to be buried cautiously, without being touched.

"When carrying out our work, we are aware the population doesn't trust us," said Becker. "People living in villages do not believe in viral diseases, but in evil spirits or curses. They think Western medicine is powerless against such things."

Many people also believe that visiting a person in quarantine is equivalent to signing their own death warrant. 60 percent of people infected with Ebola do not survive. “But at least 40 percent of sufferers can be saved” said Becker. "People can be helped more effectively in intensive care than at home," he explained. Health workers are not only fighting the Ebola virus, but local skepticism as well.

Becker would like to see more Ebola awareness campaigns. He would also like to employ more local staff who would work alongside foreign professionals like himself when testing for Ebola and drawing attention to the risk of infection. He believes an end to the epidemic is not yet in sight. "I assume that the situation will persist for months," he told DW.

Doctors Without Borders has sent 300 Ebola specialists to West Africa. Ebola is among the most infectious diseases in the world. There is no vaccine or specific cure for the disease.


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