[hlth] A person in Britain was in contact w/Ebola.

[Lurkess]

Believe I heard Joyce Riley just say on her GCN program "The Power Hour" that there was one case of Ebola now in Britain.

This goes along with something I heard on a news report in the middle of the night Sunday 2:30 am. I came in late to the broadcast but it was some doctor talking about it ONLY being One case. But I did not know what he was talking about.

Have tried various news networks and Google but can't find anything.

Would appreciate those folks who have access to medical forums checking to see if you can find something more.

Many thanks.

Lurkess

 

[2Trish]

Lurkess, isn't that frustrating. I've done that in the past. Think I'm the only one to have heard something and everyone else looks at me like I'm nuts. Usually a day or two later the media will finally start letting tibits out.

The attached might be a clue. Looks like it is spreading in Africa so I don't doubt it's rearing it's ugly head elsewhere.
Could be their attempts to contain it have failed.

 
Date: Sun 6 Dec 2001
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: The Nando Times, Associated Press Report, Sat 5 Dec 2001 [edited]
Entire Ogooue Ivindo Province Sealed Off to Contain Ebola Outbreak
----------------------------------------------
Gabon's government has stepped up efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak, restricting access to an entire province affected by the virus. Security and defense forces were helping local officials control movement in and out of the northeastern frontier province of Ogooue Ivindo, where the virus has already killed 17 people, government spokesman Andre Mba Obame said late on Fri 4 Dec 2002 on state television. The Authorities had previously controlled access to several affected villages in Ogooue Ivindo - a remote, thinly populated region inhabited by pygmies and other tribes who hunt in the vast rain forests of the Western Africa country. There were no reports, however, that the disease was spreading.
Medical officials confirmed 20 Ebola cases in Gabon, of whom 17 have died since the outbreak began in October 2001. Twelve other cases, including 6 fatalities, were identified in the neighboring Republic of Congo. Gabon had already sealed off its border with the Republic of Congo, allowing only medical specialists dealing with the crisis to cross. Authorities in the Republic of Congo had also cordoned off a 125-mile region on their side of the border.
The World Health Organization said medical experts were monitoring 147 people in Gabon and 95 in the Republic of Congo who may have had contact with those infected with the disease. Obame announced the creation of a special committee to deal with the crisis. He said it would be under the supervision of the Prime Minister and would include the ministers of health, defense, transport and the interior. He gave no other details.
[Byline: Serge Mabika]
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>

Trish

 

[Lurkess]

Trish, thank you so much. Appreciate your searching. And, yes'am, I do feel like a nut case when I post fragments of stuff I hear or see and can't document the source.

At least Joyce is one of the few to maintain an archive, so maybe later in the day or tomorrow, I can re-listen to the broadcast.

And I do believe Joyce also briefly mentioned what you posted. She usually always states her source too. But she was rather brief about mentioning the Ebola case as she had other news and was going to have a guest on.

Thanks, again.

Lurkess

 

[CanadaSue]

Doncha HATE that?

I just accessed the latest upate from the WHO's Outbreak page & the numbers for Gabon & Republic of Congo haven't changed. There's no mention of any cases having been reported or suspected outside the brders of these 2 countries. BBC has nothing, neither does Britain's Sky News. The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, tabloids; can't find a word.

Joyce Riley would have to get this from somewhere, either a media outlet or an 'undisclosed source'. Britain is "ebola aware". I lived there during the 95 Kikwit outbreak & it was a major news story on all TV news channels until the outbreak was under control. Britain had a case in 1976 when a lab work accidently stuck himself with a needle. It's the only case I know where needle stick did not reult in death, Here's the case table for the CDCs Special Pathogens branch. In that case, Britain rather over reacted. The emptied an entire north London hospital for this ONE patient & all staff caring for him were quarantined.

I can't see how this could be hidden if another case showed up. Now it's possible an aid worker from either Gabon or Congo returned to Britain incubating the disease & it's just been diagnosed. We'll have to wait & see what the media reports or if it shows up on ProMed or outbreak news. If there IS a documented or suspected case, ProMed will pick it up. It's only reasnable to expect that at some point in time, it will return to Europe or hit our shores, probably due to a visitor or foreign aid worker returning home or going on holiday.

I'll keep hunting. Thanks for the catch.

 

[Lurkess]

Sue, thank you for all your time and trouble. Know you have good links to medical websites, so if it is true or it is publically acknowledged, you'd know about it.

Lurkess

 

[mt4design]

I've mentioned this before but figure I'll do so again...

I got "inside" info from a PhD working in genetic research at USC out here in L.A. She's dialed in directly with orgs like the CDC (including getting constant updates).

Word is that prior to the y2k rollover Anhrax was stolen at a university in the midwest by a Pakistani student who was never heard from again. This student also managed to procure "other" deadly viruses as well. My contact was so worried about the prospect of a release during Y2k that she and her mother did bug out of L.A. for the rollover.

I talked to her mom not too long ago and she flat out said that the Anthrax was known to be "homegrown" and that it was actually incredibly easy to "grow" anthrax in a garage using chemistry equipment and stuff you can pick up at HomeDepot. So, when you hear or read the words, "domestic", then that is absolutely correct. However, TPTB don't want the mass of sheeple to know that terrorists are actually working within this country to destroy it.

Anyway...the point is the PhD wasn't at all worried about the Anthrax. It's a test.

Remember A&L? My source totally cooberates their suggestion that something more deadly is planned.

My source said, flat out, that her fear is there will be a massive attack when the seasons change...late winter, early spring. And, her biggest fear was that it would be something akin to Ebola...only worse.

Having read the info on the mutant, Russian strain of hemoragic fever AFTER she told me this info, I take her fear to heart.

The UK was the first western country to be tested utilizing Mad Cow. Word is it's now here in the US. Maybe the UK is the first country to be tested using Ebola...

So, it's really just a matter of time.

Mike

 

[Lurkess]

Mike, thanks for your reply. Somehow I must have missed the first time you posted your info.

WOW! That is enough to keep you awake at night.

That's something about Mad Cow in Britain. And speaking about Britain, can't recall if I posted this or not, but shortly after 9/11 on the PBS "News Hour" they were having a round table discussion on bio-warfare.

There was a man who was an expert, either still with the gov. or retired, and he let it slip about the H&M disease outbreak in Britain being bio-warfare. Then he quickly covered with some kinda statement like at least a lot of people thought it was bio-warfare. I figured that all along myself from the way the British gov was acting during the outbreak.

Appreciate your sharing.

Lurkess

 

[CanadaSue]

Yup, it is...

Anthrax itself isn't hard to obtain or grow. As an amateur, it's easy enough to find old farm fields which may still have anthrax spores. The problem lies in weaponizing it, that is getting into a posdered form small enough to carry around & spread. THAT would take some fairly sophisticated equipment & a ton of expertise. I don't think I could even turn on the machines...rofl.

As to weaponize Ebola as a weapon... sure, once you solve several problems...

The ones which sicken humans, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan & Ebola Tai are not known to be airborne, in spite of a few unexplained cases. Ebola Reston, which des NOT make humans sick IS an airborne strain. Okay the first step is to sequence the Ebola Reston genese & determine which gene(s) make it airborne, then work out the exact mechanism. Next you want to tak your most lethal Ebola strain for humans, probably Mayinga strain of Ebola Zaire & figure out the equivalent gene sequence. You'd have to 'snip' that out & replace it with the sequence for 'airborneness'. Then you have to hope the new gene both fits & "takes". Or do it the other way; start with airborne Ebola Reston & add genes making it pathogenic to humans; whichever seems eaier.

Next phase, testing on humans. Your victims would have to be completely quarantined & safety standards for observers & reseachers stringent. Needless to say, these test subjects would not be willing. Tom Clancy gives an example in Executive Orders for those interested... using prisoners.

Okay, asuming you develop a working version of your new Ebola. Before you use it, you need a vaccine and/or treatment. Cause once you set an airborne strain loose with a death rate upwards of 75% or more, the human world is in a bad way.

I know a number of researchers are busy trying to decode the Ebola genomes. Where they are in that effort, I'm not sure. I'll dig through the journals to try & get some idea. Doubt they'll go into too much detail; I simply want to know how far they've gotten in understanding this puppy. Last time I checked, they'd figured out one of hemmorhagic mechanisms involved, but also stated they had at least 3 new proteins & didn't have a clue what they did... yet.

 

[inspirations]

Hi Mike,

I must have missed your last post, too. You said that your source
said her fear was there will be a massive attack when the seasons change.... My question is why then? I think everyone believes an attack will be sooner, rather than later.

Any thoughts as to what kind of attack? Ebola mixed with something else? Like hemorraghic fever? Aren't they kind
of the same?

>>The UK was the first western country to be tested utilizing Mad Cow. Word is it's now here in the US. Maybe the UK is the first country to be tested using Ebola...>>

I, too, believe that Mad Cow may well be here in the U.S. Have you read "Deadly Feasts"?

Thanks for posting, Mike.

 

[CanadaSue]

Inspirations, here...

... is a quick & dirty on viral hemmorhagic fevers. There are a number of them & Ebola is the most lethal in infected patients.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/factmenu.htm

If you want to use a hemorhagic fever as a weapon, summers would be best, although unless you make them airborne, such an attack has little chance of working here considering how they're spread. You also have the problem of having vaccines or treatments to protect your own people as these days, you simply cannot contain an airborne illness to where-ever it starts. hat is, not unless you're 'on the case' before patients become contagious or can impose 100% movement restrictions on everyone in the area.

Btw, nothing yet anywhere I can find on any case of Ebola in the UK. Their biggest health story is the failing health of theis Chancellor's premature baby daughter. Their biggest terrorist story is the chance of Taliban terrosits attacking anywhere in Britain.

 

[data junkie]

Also hemorhagic smallpox was discussed in the A&L thread, 100% fatality IIRC....?

 

[CanadaSue]

Hemmorhagic smallpox

...does exist & makes up about 4% of cases of variola major. It isn't 100% fatal, but approaches 90%.

 

[Brooks]

As far as foot & mouth being biowarfare, the problem I have with that is it would have been so easy to introduce to this country, but that doesn't seem to have happen. I just don't see those involved missing out on an opportunity like that.

I believe the Cascadian concern was "by Christmas". Some how it smells to me of the doomer .gov and .mil predictions we took at more than face value for y2k. There are folks whose job it is to come up with a plausible worst case scenario. Info like that filters out and it seems so much more real than the writers had in mind.

Or maybe the FBI really has been quite successful in foiling additional attacks.

 

[inspirations]

CanadaSue,

Thanks for the information. I became somewhat informed about some of these hemorraghic fevers after reading the Hot Zone. I have a question: When Ebola-Reston showed up in the US in monkeys, why didn't it spread? How was it contained? It was air-born, wasn't it?

It's been quite awhile since I read this so I'm fuzzy on what actually happened.

Thanks.

 

[CanadaSue]

What I remember...

The monkey housing unit in Reston was a designated quarantine facility for the monkeys in question. While a certain percentage of such imported monkeys are expected to die, kudos to the vet overseeing the operation, Dan Dalgard. He picked up an unusual number of deaths & didn't like the symptoms. He thought he had Simian Hemmorhagic fever on his hands though.

To make a long story short, although if you wish, I DO have a time line of what happened, after the CDC determined the pathogen was an Ebola virus, USAMRIID was given the okay by the company owning the monkeys to kill them all & decontaminate the building. They did do. Unfortunately, it showed up again at the Reston facility & the procedure had to be repeated. The building was eventually torn down.

There was another outbreak at a similar facility near Alice Texas & at a location I'm not sure of in Pennsylvania the same year, 89. The second outbreak ocured in 90 at Reston & also was repeated in Alice. All monkeys were traced to an importer in the Philippines.

In 1992, monkeys from the same import facility developed Ebola Reston in Sienna Italy; not sure wht happened to them but as there was no spread, presumably they too were destroyed.

In 1996, the facility in the Philippines again had monkeys testing positive.

4 animal handlers at Reston later tested positive. At the time of the first outbreak, one had a heart attack & another left the facility, barfing all over the lawn. The CDC & USAMIID folks had kittens but neither acutely ill worker was quarantined & it was later determined that their illnesses were purely coincidental.

The disease didn't spread because the parent corporation absorbed the loss & made the call to have ALL monkeys destroyed. Quarantine regulations for such animals have since been toughened.

 

[inspirations]

Thanks CanadaSue. The Reston Ebola was airborn, wasn't it? The monkeys were catching it through the air as I recall. What prevented this strain of Ebola from jumping from the primates to the handlers? Could this happen? Could there be a form of Ebola that is airborn and can be transmitted to humans?

Just wondering.

 

[mt4design]

When I said Mad Cow what I really meant was the Hoof and Mouth outbreak in the UK. There is now a possibility of outbreaks here in the US of H&M.

Sorry.

Could there be a form of Ebola that is airborn and can be transmitted to humans?

absolutely...this was discussed quite a bit a couple of months ago...Russia developed a highly mobile and deadly airborne strain based upon the research of a scientist who actually accidently infected himself and while he was dying outlined the symptoms, etc., that he was going through.

anyone have the links?

This is all speculation but...

regarding the time table from my source...that's when she felt we'd begin to see probing quite like what we saw with the Anthrax. The thing that really got me is that this is a PhD in genetic research hooked directly in to the CDC pipeline.

She was specific in her fears that there was a high threat of a possible attack using an Ebola like virus.

Personally, I think we first started seeing this around the Pakistani border just after 9/11. And, I wouldn't be surprised if we see an outbreak along the Turkish/Iraqi border targeted directly at the Kurds soon.

I think Saddam and OBL are deep into all of this together.

I'll see if I can find out more asap.

Mike

 

[CeeBee]

Any substance here?

Sixteen posts make it look like there's something going on with this story, but is there? Is there Ebola in the UK? I'm kinda doubting it myself unless someone comes up with some sourcing pretty quick. Otherwise y'all might as well SPIKE this thread before it just becomes rumormongering (fearmongering to a lot of folks), cause the thread title is like a magnet.

 

[Ice]

I think there trying to start to warn them original site with date is here

http://www.ananova.com/search/index.html

Britain 'faces greater risk of tropical diseases'
story date: 07/01/2002

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_488932.html



Ananova :



Britain 'faces greater risk of tropical diseases'

A boom in adventure travel to developing countries means Britain is facing a greater risk from tropical diseases.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Liam Donaldson will warn this week there are almost no safeguards in place against illnesses like Ebola, yellow fever and cerebral malaria.

In a report he says it is only a matter of time before diseases like West Nile Fever come to Britain, writes the Daily Mail.

Climate change is also helping viruses and bacteria survive in Britain, the paper says.

Dr Donaldson says in his report: "It is essential to expect the unexpected. Given the nature of micro-organisms that cause infection, the path of human behaviour and changes to the environment, further newly-emergent diseases are inevitable."

A rare strain of meningitis which has annual outbreaks in the UK has been linked to British Muslims visiting Mecca.

Story filed: 09:35 Monday 7th January 2002

ICE

 

[Lurkess]

OK, found Joyce's archive.

She bascially said what was in Ice's Ananova article (thank you Ice).

But she added the announcement that one person was now in Britain who had been in CONTACT with Ebola.

Therefore my leap to thinking the person HAD Ebola.

Do find it a rather strange statement. Was this person a medical worker? A visitor? A relative?

Is he or she gonna come down with Ebola?

Why even say anything? Think Ice is right. They are starting to beat the warning drums now.

Sorry to put everyone out. Really thought there was a case already established in Britain and someone here could readily find it written up somewhere.

Lurkess

 

[valsteve11]

Disease Outbreaks
Reported
7 January 2002

Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Gabon/The Republic of the Congo
- Update 13

As of 6 January 2002, 33 confirmed cases have been reported (15 by laboratory testing, 18 epidemiologically linked), including 24 deaths (17 in Gabon, 7 in the Republic of the Congo). Of these 33 confirmed cases, 20 cases have been detected in Gabon and 13 in villages close to the border between the two countries (see map below). An additional 15 suspected cases in Gabon are under investigation.
All contacts (having direct or suspected contact with the blood or other body fluids of a case) are being closely monitored for signs or symptoms of Ebola haemorrhagic fever for 21 days. As of 6 January 2002, 247 contacts are under active follow up (213 contacts in Gabon, 34 in the Republic of the Congo).

The international team continues to work closely on both sides of the border with the Congolese and Gabonese Ministries of Health. The Gabonese Red Cross Society is carrying out health education activities in the Gabonese villages.


http://www.who.int/disease-outbreak-news/n2002/january/07january2002.html

 

[mt4design]

CeeBee, you're right.

I'm just edgy. Because of what I was told I've been expecting to hear this kind of news for months now.

My apologies.

Mike

 

[CanadaSue]

Ebola/warning, etc.

I'd mentioned I lived in Britain during the 95 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit & that at the time, it was major news in Britain, as it was pretty well everywhere else. I remember at least 2 major networks, SKY & BBC doing hour long discussion shows about the possibility of Ebola or other tropical nasties coming to the UK. IN short, the risks of widespread outbreak are minimal.

Yes, there's more travel. Many students, finishing secondary school take a 'gap year'; a year off to work, travel, etc. Quite a number go to third world countries as aid workers of one stripe or another. While I lived there, the odd one came back with malaria, Dengue & other illnesses which they developed AFTER returning. THis was never a problem in terms of spread as the UK has all the health care facilities we're used to.

The most important thing to do to avoid catching Ebola is maintaining barriers between you & the patient, using gloves, masks & isolation. For Ebola to become established anywhere but the countries where we're already seen it, it would have to establish itself in a native species. We don't know what species harbour it now without making these hosts sick, so we really can't speculate on the likelihood of this occuring.

The contact in the UK may have been such an aid worker, or a tourist who later found out a village or area he/she'd been in now has Ebola. I wish 'contact' was better defined though. Did he touch a patient? Or was he just in the area?

I hope, for this person'd sake, that nothing develops.

Frankly, if I heard of a person in my town who developed Ebola, I wouldn't freak. It's simply not catchy that easily.

As to the rumours of Russian developed airborne strain(s), I think I remember reading something about that; I'll check.