Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
This confirms that the Ebola virus can live in semen for some time after a patient "recovers." I wonder if the man had unprotected sex with anybody after he "recovered."
EBOLA MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD 11/16/14 to 11/30/14
Plain Jane
Just Plain Jane
According to an article about Mali (above) "The clinic, one of Bamako's best known and used by expatriates and the country's elite, denies any wrongdoing. It says it followed all its procedures for treating Ebola and that the imam never showed any signs of the fever."
Yet fever is the main symptom we are checking for. Has one of this woman's contacts come down with something now? Is the disease mutating so that fever is no longer as reliable an indicator?
Last edited:
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
More details on the spreading Ebola crisis in Mali. It is now reported only 177 people have died from Ebola, 5,000 to 5,177 in the last week, or two, or three. DOOMER SAYS STOP THE LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
niman
Post subject: UNMEER Ebola Nov 18 SitRep Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:36 pm
Online
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Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
UNMEER Ebola Oct 18 situation update includes detail on outbreak in Mali.
http://www.un.org/ebolaresponse/pdf/Sit ... 8Nov14.pdf
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
EY POINTS
Mali has placed around 600 people who may have been exposed to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
under daily surveillance.
The EU on Monday announced a new € 29 million funding package for the EVD response.
A total of 14,413 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of EVD have been reported in 8
countries. There have been 5,177 reported deaths.
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Mali said Monday it had placed nearly 600 people who may have been exposed to EVD under daily
surveillance as the country battles to contain the spread of the virus. After the deaths of a Guinean
imam and the Malian nurse who treated him in the capital Bamako, a friend who had visited the
imam in the Pasteur clinic also died of probable EVD, while a doctor at the clinic who contracted the
disease is undergoing treatment. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, on a visit to the imam's home
village of Kouremale on the Mali-Guinea border, urged locals to take all precautions in "the war"
against Ebola. “We will not close the border, but don't let anyone enter Mali without having washed
their hands or taken their temperature," the president told medical workers.
2. The US added Mali to the list of countries whose travelers face special EVD screening on arrival,
along with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three most affected countries in the outbreak. The
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security
announced the provision, for roughly 15 daily arrivals out of Mali, saying that there have been a
number of confirmed cases of EVD in Mali in recent days, and a large number of individuals may
have been exposed to those cases. There are no direct flights from Mali to the US.
3. The EU on Monday announced € 12 million (US$ 15 million) in funding for Mali, Senegal and Ivory
Coast "to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public
awareness measures". The funding was part of a new € 29 million package for West Africa as a
whole, which comes on top of the € 1 billion previously announced by the EU and its member states.
The remainder of the funding will go to transporting aid and equipment to Sierra Leone, Liberia and
Guinea and for evacuating infected international aid workers to hospitals in Europe.
_________________
niman
Post subject: UNMEER Ebola Nov 18 SitRep Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:36 pm
Online
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
UNMEER Ebola Oct 18 situation update includes detail on outbreak in Mali.
http://www.un.org/ebolaresponse/pdf/Sit ... 8Nov14.pdf
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
EY POINTS
Mali has placed around 600 people who may have been exposed to Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
under daily surveillance.
The EU on Monday announced a new € 29 million funding package for the EVD response.
A total of 14,413 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of EVD have been reported in 8
countries. There have been 5,177 reported deaths.
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Mali said Monday it had placed nearly 600 people who may have been exposed to EVD under daily
surveillance as the country battles to contain the spread of the virus. After the deaths of a Guinean
imam and the Malian nurse who treated him in the capital Bamako, a friend who had visited the
imam in the Pasteur clinic also died of probable EVD, while a doctor at the clinic who contracted the
disease is undergoing treatment. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, on a visit to the imam's home
village of Kouremale on the Mali-Guinea border, urged locals to take all precautions in "the war"
against Ebola. “We will not close the border, but don't let anyone enter Mali without having washed
their hands or taken their temperature," the president told medical workers.
2. The US added Mali to the list of countries whose travelers face special EVD screening on arrival,
along with Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three most affected countries in the outbreak. The
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security
announced the provision, for roughly 15 daily arrivals out of Mali, saying that there have been a
number of confirmed cases of EVD in Mali in recent days, and a large number of individuals may
have been exposed to those cases. There are no direct flights from Mali to the US.
3. The EU on Monday announced € 12 million (US$ 15 million) in funding for Mali, Senegal and Ivory
Coast "to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public
awareness measures". The funding was part of a new € 29 million package for West Africa as a
whole, which comes on top of the € 1 billion previously announced by the EU and its member states.
The remainder of the funding will go to transporting aid and equipment to Sierra Leone, Liberia and
Guinea and for evacuating infected international aid workers to hospitals in Europe.
_________________
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
The latest "official" update/lies about Ebola in Africa 11-18-2014
The link contains all the graphics which I can't seem to upload correctly.
http://fluboard.rhizalabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12967
Ebola November Update - MMWR
Author Message
niman
Post subject: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:39 pm
Online
Early release MMWR updates Ebola in West Africa.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm ... 3e1118a1_w
Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus and the World Health Organization; CDC Guinea Response Team; Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; CDC Liberia Response Team; Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation; CDC Sierra Leone Response Team; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
CDC is assisting ministries of health and working with other organizations to end the ongoing epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa (1). The updated data in this report were compiled from situation reports from the Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus and the World Health Organization, the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Total case counts include all suspected, probable, and confirmed cases, which are defined similarly by each country (2). These data reflect reported cases, which make up an unknown proportion of all cases, and reporting delays that vary from country to country.
According to the latest World Health Organization update on November 14, 2014 (3), a total of 14,383 Ebola cases have been reported as of November 11 from three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) where transmission is widespread and intense. The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (6,878 cases) and Sierra Leone (5,586), followed by Guinea (1,919). Peaks in the number of new cases occurred in Liberia (509 cases), Sierra Leone (540 cases), and Guinea (292 cases) at epidemiologic weeks 38 (September 14–20), 44 (October 26–November 1), and 41 (October 5–11), respectively (Figures 1 and 2). A total of 5,438 deaths have been reported. Investigation of localized transmission in two locations in Mali (Kourémalé and Bamako) is currently underway (4). Transmission was interrupted successfully in Nigeria (October 19) and prevented in Senegal (October 17) (3).
The 2,705 new Ebola cases reported during October 19–November 8 were more widely distributed geographically among districts in Guinea and Liberia compared with the 2,809 new cases reported during September 28–October 18 (5). During both periods, counts of Ebola cases reported were highest in the area around Monrovia, Liberia; the Western and northwest districts of Sierra Leone, particularly Bombali and Port Loko; and the prefectures of Kérouané, Macenta, and Nzérékoré, Guinea (Figure 3).
As of November 8, the highest cumulative incidence rates (>100 cases per 100,000 population) were reported by two prefectures in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), four counties in Liberia (Bomi, Lofa, and particularly Margibi and Montserrado), and five districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, and Western Area) (Figure 4). Evidence of decreasing incidence in Lofa and Montserrado, Liberia, is described elsewhere (6–8).
The latest updates on the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, including case counts, are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... index.html. The most up-to-date infection control and clinical guidelines on the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/index.html.
Acknowledgments
World Health Organization. Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program, CDC. Situational Awareness Team, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, CDC.
_________________
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
References
Dixon MG, Schafer IJ. Ebola viral disease outbreak—West Africa, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63:548–51.
World Health Organization. Case definition recommendations for Ebola or Marburg virus diseases. Available at http://www.who.int/csr/resources/public ... act-en.pdf Adobe PDF fileExternal Web Site Icon.
World Health Organization. Ebola response roadmap situation report, 14 November 2014. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2014. Available at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/si ... enExternal Web Site Icon.
CDC. 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa—case counts. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... ounts.html.
Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Ministries of Health of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC. Ebola virus disease outbreak—West Africa, October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63:978–81.
Sharma A, Heijenberg N, Peter C, et al. Evidence for a decrease in transmission of Ebola virus—Lofa County, Liberia, June 8–November 1, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Nyenswah TG, Westercamp M, Ashraf Kamali A, et al. Evidence for declining numbers of Ebola cases—Montserrado County, Liberia, June–October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Nyenswah T, Fahnbulleh M, Massaquoi M, et al. Ebola epidemic—Liberia, March–October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 1. Cumulative number of Ebola virus disease cases reported, by epidemiologic week — three countries, West Africa, March 29–November 8, 2014
Image
* A change in reporting source data at week 43 resulted in an adjustment of cumulative cases in Liberia.
Alternate Text: The figure above shows the cumulative number of Ebola cases reported, by epidemiologic week, in three West African countries, during March 29-November 8, 2014. According to the latest World Health Organization update on November 14, 2014, a total of 14,383 Ebola cases have been reported as of November 11 from three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (6,878 cases) and Sierra Leone (5,586), followed by Guinea (1,919).
_________________
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niman
Post subject: Re: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:43 pm
Online
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 2. Number of new Ebola virus disease cases reported, by epidemiologic week — three countries, West Africa, March 29–November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate text: The figure above shows the number of new Ebola cases reported, by epidemiologic week, in three West African countries, during March 29-November 8, 2014. Peaks in the number of new cases occurred in Liberia (509 cases), Sierra Leone (540 cases), and Guinea (292 cases) at epidemiologic weeks 38 (September 14-20), 44 (October 26-November 1), and 41 (October 5-11), respectively.
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niman
Post subject: Re: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:44 pm
Online
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 3. Number of new cases of Ebola virus disease reported — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, October 19–November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone showing the number of new cases of Ebola reported in West Africa during October 19-November 8, 2014. Counts of Ebola cases were highest in the area around Monrovia, Liberia; the Western and northwest districts of Sierra Leone, particularly Bombali and Port Loko; and the prefectures of Kérouané, Macenta, and Nzérékoré, Guinea.
_________________
www.twitter.com/hniman
FIGURE 4. Cumulative incidence of Ebola virus disease — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone showing Ebola cumulative incidence as of November 8, 2014. The highest rates (>100 cases per 100,000 population) were reported by two prefectures in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), four counties in Liberia (Bomi, Lofa, and particularly Margibi and Montserrado), and five districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, and Western Area).
_________________
The link contains all the graphics which I can't seem to upload correctly.
http://fluboard.rhizalabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12967
Ebola November Update - MMWR
Author Message
niman
Post subject: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:39 pm
Online
Early release MMWR updates Ebola in West Africa.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm ... 3e1118a1_w
Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus and the World Health Organization; CDC Guinea Response Team; Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; CDC Liberia Response Team; Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation; CDC Sierra Leone Response Team; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
CDC is assisting ministries of health and working with other organizations to end the ongoing epidemic of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa (1). The updated data in this report were compiled from situation reports from the Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus and the World Health Organization, the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Total case counts include all suspected, probable, and confirmed cases, which are defined similarly by each country (2). These data reflect reported cases, which make up an unknown proportion of all cases, and reporting delays that vary from country to country.
According to the latest World Health Organization update on November 14, 2014 (3), a total of 14,383 Ebola cases have been reported as of November 11 from three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) where transmission is widespread and intense. The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (6,878 cases) and Sierra Leone (5,586), followed by Guinea (1,919). Peaks in the number of new cases occurred in Liberia (509 cases), Sierra Leone (540 cases), and Guinea (292 cases) at epidemiologic weeks 38 (September 14–20), 44 (October 26–November 1), and 41 (October 5–11), respectively (Figures 1 and 2). A total of 5,438 deaths have been reported. Investigation of localized transmission in two locations in Mali (Kourémalé and Bamako) is currently underway (4). Transmission was interrupted successfully in Nigeria (October 19) and prevented in Senegal (October 17) (3).
The 2,705 new Ebola cases reported during October 19–November 8 were more widely distributed geographically among districts in Guinea and Liberia compared with the 2,809 new cases reported during September 28–October 18 (5). During both periods, counts of Ebola cases reported were highest in the area around Monrovia, Liberia; the Western and northwest districts of Sierra Leone, particularly Bombali and Port Loko; and the prefectures of Kérouané, Macenta, and Nzérékoré, Guinea (Figure 3).
As of November 8, the highest cumulative incidence rates (>100 cases per 100,000 population) were reported by two prefectures in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), four counties in Liberia (Bomi, Lofa, and particularly Margibi and Montserrado), and five districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, and Western Area) (Figure 4). Evidence of decreasing incidence in Lofa and Montserrado, Liberia, is described elsewhere (6–8).
The latest updates on the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, including case counts, are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... index.html. The most up-to-date infection control and clinical guidelines on the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/index.html.
Acknowledgments
World Health Organization. Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program, CDC. Situational Awareness Team, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, CDC.
_________________
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
References
Dixon MG, Schafer IJ. Ebola viral disease outbreak—West Africa, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63:548–51.
World Health Organization. Case definition recommendations for Ebola or Marburg virus diseases. Available at http://www.who.int/csr/resources/public ... act-en.pdf Adobe PDF fileExternal Web Site Icon.
World Health Organization. Ebola response roadmap situation report, 14 November 2014. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2014. Available at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/si ... enExternal Web Site Icon.
CDC. 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa—case counts. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/ ... ounts.html.
Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Ministries of Health of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC. Ebola virus disease outbreak—West Africa, October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63:978–81.
Sharma A, Heijenberg N, Peter C, et al. Evidence for a decrease in transmission of Ebola virus—Lofa County, Liberia, June 8–November 1, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Nyenswah TG, Westercamp M, Ashraf Kamali A, et al. Evidence for declining numbers of Ebola cases—Montserrado County, Liberia, June–October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Nyenswah T, Fahnbulleh M, Massaquoi M, et al. Ebola epidemic—Liberia, March–October 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2014;63(Early Release):1–5.
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 1. Cumulative number of Ebola virus disease cases reported, by epidemiologic week — three countries, West Africa, March 29–November 8, 2014
Image
* A change in reporting source data at week 43 resulted in an adjustment of cumulative cases in Liberia.
Alternate Text: The figure above shows the cumulative number of Ebola cases reported, by epidemiologic week, in three West African countries, during March 29-November 8, 2014. According to the latest World Health Organization update on November 14, 2014, a total of 14,383 Ebola cases have been reported as of November 11 from three West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (6,878 cases) and Sierra Leone (5,586), followed by Guinea (1,919).
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niman
Post subject: Re: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:43 pm
Online
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 2. Number of new Ebola virus disease cases reported, by epidemiologic week — three countries, West Africa, March 29–November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate text: The figure above shows the number of new Ebola cases reported, by epidemiologic week, in three West African countries, during March 29-November 8, 2014. Peaks in the number of new cases occurred in Liberia (509 cases), Sierra Leone (540 cases), and Guinea (292 cases) at epidemiologic weeks 38 (September 14-20), 44 (October 26-November 1), and 41 (October 5-11), respectively.
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www.twitter.com/hniman
Top
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niman
Post subject: Re: Ebola November Update - MMWR
PostPosted: Tue Nov 18, 2014 2:44 pm
Online
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:42 am
Posts: 47877
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
FIGURE 3. Number of new cases of Ebola virus disease reported — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, October 19–November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone showing the number of new cases of Ebola reported in West Africa during October 19-November 8, 2014. Counts of Ebola cases were highest in the area around Monrovia, Liberia; the Western and northwest districts of Sierra Leone, particularly Bombali and Port Loko; and the prefectures of Kérouané, Macenta, and Nzérékoré, Guinea.
_________________
www.twitter.com/hniman
FIGURE 4. Cumulative incidence of Ebola virus disease — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, November 8, 2014
Image
Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone showing Ebola cumulative incidence as of November 8, 2014. The highest rates (>100 cases per 100,000 population) were reported by two prefectures in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), four counties in Liberia (Bomi, Lofa, and particularly Margibi and Montserrado), and five districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, and Western Area).
_________________
angelight
love, light and laughter
NYC Investigates death of woman being monitored for Ebola- will not let me copy article
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/nyc-de...n-monitored-ebola/story?id=27011543&source=hp
JohnGaltfla
#NeverTrump
No problemo...and we had best start worrying more about NYC than Mali folks....
NYC Department of Health Investigates Death of Woman Monitored for Ebola
Nov 18, 2014, 9:14 PM ET
By AARON KATERSKY, JOSH MARGOLIN and MIKE LEVINE
A woman in New York City who was being monitored for possible exposure to Ebola has died and her cause of death is being investigated by the city’s Health Department.
The woman had recently arrived from Guinea, one of three countries that have been designated for special attention to travelers because of outbreaks of the lethal virus. Liberia and Sierra Leone are the other two countries.
The New York City Health Department said that the last time the woman was checked, she did not have symptoms of Ebola. People who are being monitored are checked daily.
There are about 350 people on the city’s list of people being monitored for Ebola.
A New York City official briefed on the woman's death told ABC News, "Earlier today, an individual who came to the U.S. from one of the three Ebola-impacted nations in West Africa within last three weeks died of an apparent non-Ebola condition. This individual at no time showed any symptoms of Ebola. However, due to travel history and an abundance of caution, an Ebola test will be performed on this individual's remains. Test results are expected later tonight or early tomorrow morning."
Tom McDowell
BAMN
VIA PFI - Direct C&P - Monotreme
edited and emphasis mine
===
Liberia: Secret Night Burials - Liberia's Health Ministry Alarms Growing
http://allafrica.com/stories/201411190768.html
Stephen D. Kollie 19 November 2014
The Ministry of Health of and Social Welfare has raise a serious alarm over the refusal of people allowing their dead ones to be buried with dignity by health officials but rather, many family members have begun carrying out secret burials at night in their various communities.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the Ministry of Information regular Ebola press briefing, Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah disclosed that the time is not certified yet for Liberians to return to their usual cultural practices and that an attempt to do so will lead the nation to a dangerous trajectory.
Said Minister Nyenswah: "People are in the night burying secretly being unsafe and they bury these people without any safety. They are not trained to do that and we have health workers that could bury safely with the dignity that is required for the family people. We regret a lot for the loved ones that we lost during this crisis and we are also feeling it to the extent that people cannot perform the rituals, the traditional practices that we all used to perform. But the time is not certified yet for us to revert to those practices when we still having active transmission of the disease."
The Assistant Health Minister noted that the Ministry is still recording 20-50 new Ebola suspected cases on a daily basis across the country, suggesting that there is active transmission of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia.
Health workers infected
The Minister expressed shock that in the past weeks there were low infections in health care workers, but of recent, the situation has changed with more health care workers beginning to get infected again with the Ebola Virus Disease. He many of the health workers that are getting infected are either treating sick patients at home or in the private health facilities in the country.
"Common example is in Jenewonde where we visited over the weekend and we noticed that a vaccinator who was not working at the clinic in Jenewonde got infected from the Ebola virus disease, refused to come to any ETU and died in the community infecting other people in the home," the Minister said.
Ebola base in Monrovia
Minister Nyenswah also revealed that the highest number of Ebola cases is now being reported from Monrovia and that the capital is actively infecting other leeward counties. He said the current hotspots of outbreak in the rest of the fifteen counties are cases that originates from Monrovia
Minister Nyenswah said: "We want to sound this warning especially to our people in the leeward counties that don't take sick strangers at this time and even if somebody goes into your village, into your community or county, make sure you keep active surveillance on that individual and report that to the county health team so that we can properly follow up that person. And traditional healers also should be careful of people leaving from Monrovia going to the leeward counties for healing when we have ETUs that could accept them."
===
.
edited and emphasis mine
===
Liberia: Secret Night Burials - Liberia's Health Ministry Alarms Growing
http://allafrica.com/stories/201411190768.html
Stephen D. Kollie 19 November 2014
The Ministry of Health of and Social Welfare has raise a serious alarm over the refusal of people allowing their dead ones to be buried with dignity by health officials but rather, many family members have begun carrying out secret burials at night in their various communities.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday at the Ministry of Information regular Ebola press briefing, Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah disclosed that the time is not certified yet for Liberians to return to their usual cultural practices and that an attempt to do so will lead the nation to a dangerous trajectory.
Said Minister Nyenswah: "People are in the night burying secretly being unsafe and they bury these people without any safety. They are not trained to do that and we have health workers that could bury safely with the dignity that is required for the family people. We regret a lot for the loved ones that we lost during this crisis and we are also feeling it to the extent that people cannot perform the rituals, the traditional practices that we all used to perform. But the time is not certified yet for us to revert to those practices when we still having active transmission of the disease."
The Assistant Health Minister noted that the Ministry is still recording 20-50 new Ebola suspected cases on a daily basis across the country, suggesting that there is active transmission of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia.
Health workers infected
The Minister expressed shock that in the past weeks there were low infections in health care workers, but of recent, the situation has changed with more health care workers beginning to get infected again with the Ebola Virus Disease. He many of the health workers that are getting infected are either treating sick patients at home or in the private health facilities in the country.
"Common example is in Jenewonde where we visited over the weekend and we noticed that a vaccinator who was not working at the clinic in Jenewonde got infected from the Ebola virus disease, refused to come to any ETU and died in the community infecting other people in the home," the Minister said.
Ebola base in Monrovia
Minister Nyenswah also revealed that the highest number of Ebola cases is now being reported from Monrovia and that the capital is actively infecting other leeward counties. He said the current hotspots of outbreak in the rest of the fifteen counties are cases that originates from Monrovia
Minister Nyenswah said: "We want to sound this warning especially to our people in the leeward counties that don't take sick strangers at this time and even if somebody goes into your village, into your community or county, make sure you keep active surveillance on that individual and report that to the county health team so that we can properly follow up that person. And traditional healers also should be careful of people leaving from Monrovia going to the leeward counties for healing when we have ETUs that could accept them."
===
.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
$1 Million For Two Patients
Cost to Treat Ebola: $1 Million For Two Patients
By Maggie Fox
First published November 18th 2014, 11:59 am
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/eb...st-treat-ebola-1-million-two-patients-n250986
It cost more than $1 million to treat two patients sent to the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center, the hospital’s chancellor said Tuesday. And it’s still not clear who will pay the bill and how.
It’s the first on-the-record estimate of what it’s cost to treat Ebola patients in the United States. So far, 10 people have been treated on U.S. soil — most recently, Sierra Leonean Dr. Martin Salia, who died Monday in Nebraska.
“At UNMC, it has cost around $1.16 million to treat the two patients directed to us by the federal government. Treatment costs vary based on the severity of the patient when they arrive, but the cost is well beyond the normal costs incurred for an intensive care patient,” the school’s chancellor, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, said in prepared testimony for a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee.
It cost about $30,000 a day to treat a single Ebola patient, Gold said. Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC camera operator, and Dr. Rick Sacra, the medical missionary, each stayed for about 18 days, Gold said. He said Emory University Hospital incurred similar costs in treating the four patients it took care of.
“In addition to the direct costs, we also take additional beds in the ward out of service when an Ebola patient is being treated which is a direct financial cost to the hospital. We estimate having to take those additional beds out of service has cost $148,000 so far.”
Gold told a separate briefing by the Alliance for Health reform that it is not yet clear who will pay those bills. He said he thought the federal government should.
“I urge Congress to approve funding and policies supporting full reimbursement of the cost of care for these unique cases that are not recoverable from insurance policies. These are patients that federal government directed to UNMC and Emory,” Gold said.
Patients were treated at Nebraska, Emory University Hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, the National Institutes of Health and Bellevue Hospital in New York.
===
.
Cost to Treat Ebola: $1 Million For Two Patients
By Maggie Fox
First published November 18th 2014, 11:59 am
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/eb...st-treat-ebola-1-million-two-patients-n250986
It cost more than $1 million to treat two patients sent to the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center, the hospital’s chancellor said Tuesday. And it’s still not clear who will pay the bill and how.
It’s the first on-the-record estimate of what it’s cost to treat Ebola patients in the United States. So far, 10 people have been treated on U.S. soil — most recently, Sierra Leonean Dr. Martin Salia, who died Monday in Nebraska.
“At UNMC, it has cost around $1.16 million to treat the two patients directed to us by the federal government. Treatment costs vary based on the severity of the patient when they arrive, but the cost is well beyond the normal costs incurred for an intensive care patient,” the school’s chancellor, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, said in prepared testimony for a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee.
It cost about $30,000 a day to treat a single Ebola patient, Gold said. Ashoka Mukpo, the NBC camera operator, and Dr. Rick Sacra, the medical missionary, each stayed for about 18 days, Gold said. He said Emory University Hospital incurred similar costs in treating the four patients it took care of.
“In addition to the direct costs, we also take additional beds in the ward out of service when an Ebola patient is being treated which is a direct financial cost to the hospital. We estimate having to take those additional beds out of service has cost $148,000 so far.”
Gold told a separate briefing by the Alliance for Health reform that it is not yet clear who will pay those bills. He said he thought the federal government should.
“I urge Congress to approve funding and policies supporting full reimbursement of the cost of care for these unique cases that are not recoverable from insurance policies. These are patients that federal government directed to UNMC and Emory,” Gold said.
Patients were treated at Nebraska, Emory University Hospital, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, the National Institutes of Health and Bellevue Hospital in New York.
===
.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
UPDATE 2-Cuban doctor in Sierra Leone tests positive for Ebola
12:44am EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/health-ebola-cuba-idUSL2N0T909K20141119
By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A Cuban doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease and was being sent to Geneva for treatment, officials said, the first Cuban known to have contracted the potentially deadly haemorrhagic fever.
The doctor, identified by Cuba's official website Cubadebate on Tuesday as Felix Baez, is one of 165 Cuban doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. They have been there since early October.
They are part of a Cuban team of 256 medical professionals sent to West Africa to treat patients in the worst Ebola outbreak on record that has killed more than 5,000 people.
Baez, a specialist in internal medicine, had a fever on Sunday and tested positive on Monday after being taken to the capital Freetown, Cubadebate reported, citing a Health Ministry statement. He has not shown complications and is "hemodynamically stable," the statement said.
"Our collaborator is being tended to by a team of British professionals with experience in treating patients who have displayed the disease and they have maintained constant communication with our brigade," the statement said.
At the urging of the World Health Organization (WHO) it was decided to send him to a university hospital in Geneva, where he would be treated by experts in infectious diseases, the ministry statement said. His whereabouts in Sierra Leone early on Wednesday were unclear.
The Cuban commitment to treating Ebola patients in West Africa has won international praise as more substantial than contributions from many wealthy countries. Among those recognizing Cuba has been the United States, its political adversary for the past 55 years.
Some Cuban 165 doctors and nurses have gone to Sierra Leone for a six-month mission, with another 53 in Liberia and 38 in Guinea.
Another 205 have undergone three weeks of training, with extensive practice in using protective full-body suits, and are ready to receive an Ebola assignment.
The Communist-run island has practiced medical diplomacy since Fidel Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution.
While Cuba provides disaster relief around the world free of charge, it also exchanges doctors for cash or goods on more routine missions. The island receives an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela, where some 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are posted.
In all, there are more than 50,000 health workers in 67 countries.
The latest WHO tally on Nov. 14 reported 5,177 Ebola deaths out of 14,133 cases, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Paul Tait)
===
.
12:44am EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/health-ebola-cuba-idUSL2N0T909K20141119
By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - A Cuban doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease and was being sent to Geneva for treatment, officials said, the first Cuban known to have contracted the potentially deadly haemorrhagic fever.
The doctor, identified by Cuba's official website Cubadebate on Tuesday as Felix Baez, is one of 165 Cuban doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. They have been there since early October.
They are part of a Cuban team of 256 medical professionals sent to West Africa to treat patients in the worst Ebola outbreak on record that has killed more than 5,000 people.
Baez, a specialist in internal medicine, had a fever on Sunday and tested positive on Monday after being taken to the capital Freetown, Cubadebate reported, citing a Health Ministry statement. He has not shown complications and is "hemodynamically stable," the statement said.
"Our collaborator is being tended to by a team of British professionals with experience in treating patients who have displayed the disease and they have maintained constant communication with our brigade," the statement said.
At the urging of the World Health Organization (WHO) it was decided to send him to a university hospital in Geneva, where he would be treated by experts in infectious diseases, the ministry statement said. His whereabouts in Sierra Leone early on Wednesday were unclear.
The Cuban commitment to treating Ebola patients in West Africa has won international praise as more substantial than contributions from many wealthy countries. Among those recognizing Cuba has been the United States, its political adversary for the past 55 years.
Some Cuban 165 doctors and nurses have gone to Sierra Leone for a six-month mission, with another 53 in Liberia and 38 in Guinea.
Another 205 have undergone three weeks of training, with extensive practice in using protective full-body suits, and are ready to receive an Ebola assignment.
The Communist-run island has practiced medical diplomacy since Fidel Castro came to power in a 1959 revolution.
While Cuba provides disaster relief around the world free of charge, it also exchanges doctors for cash or goods on more routine missions. The island receives an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil per day from Venezuela, where some 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are posted.
In all, there are more than 50,000 health workers in 67 countries.
The latest WHO tally on Nov. 14 reported 5,177 Ebola deaths out of 14,133 cases, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Paul Tait)
===
.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-11-18/mali-nurse-braves-neighbors-stoning-to-battle-ebola
Mali Nurse Endures Neighbors’ Stoning to Battle Ebola
By Francois Rihouay November 19, 2014
“Rita has Ebola!” her neighbors chanted as they gathered at her front door after they learned that two patients at the clinic where she worked in the Malian capital, Bamako, died of the disease.
“The neighbors and some kids came after me and threw stones and handfuls of sand,” Rita, who asked that her last name not be used, said in an interview. While Rita, 38, never was in contact with either patient stricken down by the virus at Bamako’s Pasteur Clinic, she hid in her house for two days before an ambulance came to her rescue, she said.
Mali’s nurses and doctors are facing the stigma tied to Ebola that made medical workers targets in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the three nations hardest hit by the virus. Misinformation about how the disease spreads and fear about being isolated have hampered efforts to recruit workers. In the U.S., President Barack Obama has encouraged volunteers to travel to West Africa, while putting in place steps to ease concern returning workers may spread the disease.
The United Nations has begged for more doctors and nurses to help contain Ebola in the region, where there have been more than 14,000 cases and at least 5,170 have died. Health workers are the most at risk of getting the disease because they can more easily come into contact with infected bodily fluids. Ebola has killed more than half of the about 500 physicians who got it in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since December.
Families Panic
With the World Health Organization saying five people have died from the disease in the country, Mali, with about one doctor for every 10,000 people compared with 24 in the U.S., according to 2010 data from the World Bank, has managed to control the spread of the virus since the first case was reported on Oct. 23. That’s done little to ease the fear in Bamako.
The authorities are monitoring 413 people for Ebola symptoms, Mali’s Communications Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. About 30 people are in quarantine at the Pasteur Clinic until Dec. 2 following the death last week of the nurse who treated a 70-year-old grand imam from Guinea who died on Oct. 27. He wasn’t tested for Ebola.
“Several of our doctors’ children don’t go to school anymore,” said Dramane Maiga, the director of the Pasteur Clinic. “There is a panic among the clinic workers’ families and relatives. People insult them, close relatives are distant. Even spouses and husbands are panicking.”
Student Harassment
The governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are working with WHO and Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, to educate people about how Ebola spreads.
In Bamako, another nurse at the Pasteur clinic decided to confront the issue head on when harassment by students at her daughter’s school forced her to run home.
“I decided we would both go back to school and explain that we are not Ebola contaminated just by the fact that I work at the clinic,” said Jeanne, who like Rita asked that her last name be withheld. “The director understood and informed the students. The situation is still complicated, but at least my daughter can go to school now.”
When the message doesn’t reach more remote areas, the consequences can be disastrous. In southern Guinea, eight people were killed in September while carrying out an educational campaign on Ebola in a village that had just had its first cases of the virus.
‘Rumor Manager’
Families of victims in Guinea, which borders Mali, broke out relatives from treatment centers at the beginning of the outbreak and threatened workers. They didn’t believe that Ebola was real and said the doctors were infecting their loved ones. In Liberia, a man burned down part of a hospital in the capital after his wife died.
In Nigeria, which was declared Ebola free last month, the government appointed a “rumor manager” and asked pastors to help dispel lies including those about fake cures that spread through Lagos, a city of about 20 million people.
The campaigns have included commissioning music by popular artists, radio advertisements and signs at public buildings. Some misinformation has persisted that has made it more difficult for health workers.
While the spread is being contained in some of the hardest hit areas of the three main affected countries, there’s a shortage of experts to help run Ebola treatment centers, Anthony Banbury, the UN’s head of Ebola mission, said in an interview on Nov. 5.
Skill Shortage
“That the most critical gap right now -- having very highly skilled experts,” he said. “We’re not able to open community care centers at the rate we want, and supplies are even starting to pile up in some cases in warehouses.”
That’s why Mali, a country of 16 million people, can’t afford to lose the services of nurses like Rita. By the time the ambulance crew evacuated her from her house, she had been left alone at home because relatives feared the rising hostility from neighbors.
“My two little sisters, with whom I was staying at home, left a few days before,” she said. “I don’t have anybody waiting for me there.”
===
Mali, unlike it's neighbors, seems to have a better handle on understanding Ebola. At the minimum they are afraid of Ebola and understand it's a communicable disease versus a curse, or hoax.
Unlike Doomer Doug, I tend to have hopes Mali will handle their outbreak in a fashion which will mitigate the spread of Ebola.
For example they are reporting the most vigorous initial contact tracing we've yet to see. They've instituted immediate, and possibly effective quarantine measures.
We'll know in a month or two.
If it does get out of control - DD may be correct in his normal assessments.
===
.
Mali Nurse Endures Neighbors’ Stoning to Battle Ebola
By Francois Rihouay November 19, 2014
“Rita has Ebola!” her neighbors chanted as they gathered at her front door after they learned that two patients at the clinic where she worked in the Malian capital, Bamako, died of the disease.
“The neighbors and some kids came after me and threw stones and handfuls of sand,” Rita, who asked that her last name not be used, said in an interview. While Rita, 38, never was in contact with either patient stricken down by the virus at Bamako’s Pasteur Clinic, she hid in her house for two days before an ambulance came to her rescue, she said.
Mali’s nurses and doctors are facing the stigma tied to Ebola that made medical workers targets in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the three nations hardest hit by the virus. Misinformation about how the disease spreads and fear about being isolated have hampered efforts to recruit workers. In the U.S., President Barack Obama has encouraged volunteers to travel to West Africa, while putting in place steps to ease concern returning workers may spread the disease.
The United Nations has begged for more doctors and nurses to help contain Ebola in the region, where there have been more than 14,000 cases and at least 5,170 have died. Health workers are the most at risk of getting the disease because they can more easily come into contact with infected bodily fluids. Ebola has killed more than half of the about 500 physicians who got it in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since December.
Families Panic
With the World Health Organization saying five people have died from the disease in the country, Mali, with about one doctor for every 10,000 people compared with 24 in the U.S., according to 2010 data from the World Bank, has managed to control the spread of the virus since the first case was reported on Oct. 23. That’s done little to ease the fear in Bamako.
The authorities are monitoring 413 people for Ebola symptoms, Mali’s Communications Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. About 30 people are in quarantine at the Pasteur Clinic until Dec. 2 following the death last week of the nurse who treated a 70-year-old grand imam from Guinea who died on Oct. 27. He wasn’t tested for Ebola.
“Several of our doctors’ children don’t go to school anymore,” said Dramane Maiga, the director of the Pasteur Clinic. “There is a panic among the clinic workers’ families and relatives. People insult them, close relatives are distant. Even spouses and husbands are panicking.”
Student Harassment
The governments of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are working with WHO and Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, to educate people about how Ebola spreads.
In Bamako, another nurse at the Pasteur clinic decided to confront the issue head on when harassment by students at her daughter’s school forced her to run home.
“I decided we would both go back to school and explain that we are not Ebola contaminated just by the fact that I work at the clinic,” said Jeanne, who like Rita asked that her last name be withheld. “The director understood and informed the students. The situation is still complicated, but at least my daughter can go to school now.”
When the message doesn’t reach more remote areas, the consequences can be disastrous. In southern Guinea, eight people were killed in September while carrying out an educational campaign on Ebola in a village that had just had its first cases of the virus.
‘Rumor Manager’
Families of victims in Guinea, which borders Mali, broke out relatives from treatment centers at the beginning of the outbreak and threatened workers. They didn’t believe that Ebola was real and said the doctors were infecting their loved ones. In Liberia, a man burned down part of a hospital in the capital after his wife died.
In Nigeria, which was declared Ebola free last month, the government appointed a “rumor manager” and asked pastors to help dispel lies including those about fake cures that spread through Lagos, a city of about 20 million people.
The campaigns have included commissioning music by popular artists, radio advertisements and signs at public buildings. Some misinformation has persisted that has made it more difficult for health workers.
While the spread is being contained in some of the hardest hit areas of the three main affected countries, there’s a shortage of experts to help run Ebola treatment centers, Anthony Banbury, the UN’s head of Ebola mission, said in an interview on Nov. 5.
Skill Shortage
“That the most critical gap right now -- having very highly skilled experts,” he said. “We’re not able to open community care centers at the rate we want, and supplies are even starting to pile up in some cases in warehouses.”
That’s why Mali, a country of 16 million people, can’t afford to lose the services of nurses like Rita. By the time the ambulance crew evacuated her from her house, she had been left alone at home because relatives feared the rising hostility from neighbors.
“My two little sisters, with whom I was staying at home, left a few days before,” she said. “I don’t have anybody waiting for me there.”
===
Mali, unlike it's neighbors, seems to have a better handle on understanding Ebola. At the minimum they are afraid of Ebola and understand it's a communicable disease versus a curse, or hoax.
Unlike Doomer Doug, I tend to have hopes Mali will handle their outbreak in a fashion which will mitigate the spread of Ebola.
For example they are reporting the most vigorous initial contact tracing we've yet to see. They've instituted immediate, and possibly effective quarantine measures.
We'll know in a month or two.
If it does get out of control - DD may be correct in his normal assessments.
===
.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
Via Dr. Niman
Conflict-scarred Mali pulls out the stops to beat Ebola
2014-11-18 21:57
Kouremale - The leader of the war-torn west African nation of Mali has come in person to galvanize his people as they do battle with the most elusive foe they have ever faced.
On the country's remote southern border with Guinea, the enemy is not the armed jihadists who wreak havoc elsewhere, but the Ebola virus, which has sparked a national crisis despite just four deaths.
On a strip of dusty asphalt a cavalcade of several dozen government vehicles comes to a halt in the southern frontier town of Kouremale, which is almost perfectly bisected by the border with Guinea.
This was the home of the Guinean Islamic cleric whose death in one of the Malian capital's clinics led to an emergency counter-offensive which has placed almost 600 people who may have been exposed to Ebola under observation.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita gets down from his car and washes his hands in an ostentatious show that he is setting the example, a call for vigilance in the face of an infectious and deadly tropical pathogen.
"Do not let anyone cross the border without taking his temperature. Remain vigilant to defeat Ebola," he tells a team of doctors and nurses sitting in a tent.
The team nod their agreement and their leader, a doctor named Mamoute Diarra, replies that all vehicles from Guinea are being disinfected under a new action plan, their passengers and drivers subjected to temperature checks.
'Ebola stops us sleeping'
Walls across the town are festooned with posters bearing grave warnings of the consequences of complacency.
"Ebola is a fearsome disease, be very careful," says one, while another implores "Let us work together to deal with the killer Ebola" and a third chides "Warning: take all precautions so that the disease does not take over".
Malick Kante, a local representative of the National Youth Council of Mali, leads an awareness campaign for his neighbors.
"In northern Mali, we have problems with rebels and Islamists. Here in the south, it is Ebola that stops us from sleeping. From both sides, the fight must be relentless," he says.
Kante says 150 young activists volunteer every morning as part of the campaign, helping doctors and border control officials.
Others bike around the Malian side of the town looking for sick Guineans who may have entered illegally.
On the southwestern side of the frontier, dozens of Guineans congregate to welcome the Malian head of state.
"We are really afraid of Ebola but we're also afraid to see the border close," says Ali Kourouma, a young, jobless Guinean.
His neighbour shares his anxieties, although Keita has categorically ruled out closing the border with Guinea in its entirety.
Taxi driver Issa Camara, worried about his livelihood, complained that he has had no passengers since border controls were tightened.
'Shenanigans at the border'
Nearby, a policeman in ceremonial robes says several crossing points have been closed since the crisis hit last week, with only Kouremale remaining open.
He denounces the "many shenanigans" that allowed the Guinean imam, who was already clearly ill, to cross into Mali before dying in Bamako's Pasteur clinic on October 25.
Before breathing his last, the 70-year-old infected a friend and a nurse, both of whom also died, while a doctor at the facility has tested positive.
Another police source told AFP the imam had managed to bribe several people at a clinic in Kouremale, at the border and in Bamako who helped him on his way, turning a blind eye to his fever.
The Pasteur outbreak is the second in Mali, following the death of a two-year-old girl who had travelled with her grandmother from Guinea to the western town of Kayes in early October.
That case was contained, however, with no further infections.
Mali launched a judicial inquiry into the crisis on Monday.
"But for us here, now is time for the thankless fight against the disease," said Health Minister Ousmane Kone.
He told locals of "577 people under observation who at this stage are uninfected but who could have had contact with carriers of the virus" and called for vigilance.
The appeal was hammered home by the president as he wrapped up his visit at a rally in front of several thousand Malian and Guinean nationals to conclude his visit.
"We will defeat Ebola," he said, "but it will depend on our efforts, our determination."
===
Wonder if the Grand Imam had hopes of infecting Southern and Western Mali to implement an aid towards the spread of Islam (another infectious disease).
===
.
Conflict-scarred Mali pulls out the stops to beat Ebola
2014-11-18 21:57
Kouremale - The leader of the war-torn west African nation of Mali has come in person to galvanize his people as they do battle with the most elusive foe they have ever faced.
On the country's remote southern border with Guinea, the enemy is not the armed jihadists who wreak havoc elsewhere, but the Ebola virus, which has sparked a national crisis despite just four deaths.
On a strip of dusty asphalt a cavalcade of several dozen government vehicles comes to a halt in the southern frontier town of Kouremale, which is almost perfectly bisected by the border with Guinea.
This was the home of the Guinean Islamic cleric whose death in one of the Malian capital's clinics led to an emergency counter-offensive which has placed almost 600 people who may have been exposed to Ebola under observation.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita gets down from his car and washes his hands in an ostentatious show that he is setting the example, a call for vigilance in the face of an infectious and deadly tropical pathogen.
"Do not let anyone cross the border without taking his temperature. Remain vigilant to defeat Ebola," he tells a team of doctors and nurses sitting in a tent.
The team nod their agreement and their leader, a doctor named Mamoute Diarra, replies that all vehicles from Guinea are being disinfected under a new action plan, their passengers and drivers subjected to temperature checks.
'Ebola stops us sleeping'
Walls across the town are festooned with posters bearing grave warnings of the consequences of complacency.
"Ebola is a fearsome disease, be very careful," says one, while another implores "Let us work together to deal with the killer Ebola" and a third chides "Warning: take all precautions so that the disease does not take over".
Malick Kante, a local representative of the National Youth Council of Mali, leads an awareness campaign for his neighbors.
"In northern Mali, we have problems with rebels and Islamists. Here in the south, it is Ebola that stops us from sleeping. From both sides, the fight must be relentless," he says.
Kante says 150 young activists volunteer every morning as part of the campaign, helping doctors and border control officials.
Others bike around the Malian side of the town looking for sick Guineans who may have entered illegally.
On the southwestern side of the frontier, dozens of Guineans congregate to welcome the Malian head of state.
"We are really afraid of Ebola but we're also afraid to see the border close," says Ali Kourouma, a young, jobless Guinean.
His neighbour shares his anxieties, although Keita has categorically ruled out closing the border with Guinea in its entirety.
Taxi driver Issa Camara, worried about his livelihood, complained that he has had no passengers since border controls were tightened.
'Shenanigans at the border'
Nearby, a policeman in ceremonial robes says several crossing points have been closed since the crisis hit last week, with only Kouremale remaining open.
He denounces the "many shenanigans" that allowed the Guinean imam, who was already clearly ill, to cross into Mali before dying in Bamako's Pasteur clinic on October 25.
Before breathing his last, the 70-year-old infected a friend and a nurse, both of whom also died, while a doctor at the facility has tested positive.
Another police source told AFP the imam had managed to bribe several people at a clinic in Kouremale, at the border and in Bamako who helped him on his way, turning a blind eye to his fever.
The Pasteur outbreak is the second in Mali, following the death of a two-year-old girl who had travelled with her grandmother from Guinea to the western town of Kayes in early October.
That case was contained, however, with no further infections.
Mali launched a judicial inquiry into the crisis on Monday.
"But for us here, now is time for the thankless fight against the disease," said Health Minister Ousmane Kone.
He told locals of "577 people under observation who at this stage are uninfected but who could have had contact with carriers of the virus" and called for vigilance.
The appeal was hammered home by the president as he wrapped up his visit at a rally in front of several thousand Malian and Guinean nationals to conclude his visit.
"We will defeat Ebola," he said, "but it will depend on our efforts, our determination."
===
Wonder if the Grand Imam had hopes of infecting Southern and Western Mali to implement an aid towards the spread of Islam (another infectious disease).
===
.
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
Another "I must bolt at all costs" Ebola psychosis ... gives victims wanderlust. Very peculiar because who wants to run around when they are that sick?
Pretty soon there are going to be too any stores from around the world to keep up, but this one is really curious.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/442368/man-tests-positive-ebola-delhi.html
Was the test of his semen at the airport voluntary or involuntary? And the details for either give me the shakes . . .
Man tests positive for Ebola in Delhi, quarantined
New Delhi/Jaipur, Nov 18, 2014 (DHNS):
Another suspected case in Rajasthan
The body fluid of a 26-year-old Indian man, who landed in Delhi from Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola virus, even as another man in Rajasthan showed Ebola-like symptoms. PTI photo
The body fluid of a 26-year-old Indian man, who landed in Delhi from Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola virus, even as another man in Rajasthan showed Ebola-like symptoms.
The man in Delhi was admitted to a health facility in the African nation in September and treated for Ebola. He was carrying a disease-free certificate from the Liberian health ministry, claiming he underwent treatment successfully and was cured of the disease.
The infected Indian who reached Delhi on November 10 underwent the mandatory screening at the Delhi airport. His blood tested negative for the virus.
But when his body fluids were checked, his semen tested positive for Ebola in two different government laboratories in the last two days.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/442368/man-tests-positive-ebola-delhi.html
Was the test of his semen at the airport voluntary or involuntary? And the details for either give me the shakes . . .
Man tests positive for Ebola in Delhi, quarantined
New Delhi/Jaipur, Nov 18, 2014 (DHNS):
Another suspected case in Rajasthan
The body fluid of a 26-year-old Indian man, who landed in Delhi from Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola virus, even as another man in Rajasthan showed Ebola-like symptoms. PTI photo
The body fluid of a 26-year-old Indian man, who landed in Delhi from Liberia, has tested positive for Ebola virus, even as another man in Rajasthan showed Ebola-like symptoms.
The man in Delhi was admitted to a health facility in the African nation in September and treated for Ebola. He was carrying a disease-free certificate from the Liberian health ministry, claiming he underwent treatment successfully and was cured of the disease.
The infected Indian who reached Delhi on November 10 underwent the mandatory screening at the Delhi airport. His blood tested negative for the virus.
But when his body fluids were checked, his semen tested positive for Ebola in two different government laboratories in the last two days.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
Doomer Doug
TB Fanatic
Here is the link to the latest "official" Ebola lies and disinformation.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/en/
What "they" are now saying is in November, from 11-5 to 11-19, some two weeks, Ebola infections increased by 2000 total, or 1000 a week. The deaths increased at 300 per week and 600 total. Gang, THESE NUMBERS ARE TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY INACCURATE!!!!!
Using the Doomer Doug sanctioned times four<G> number you have 8,000 total real cases, or 4,000 a week. You have 1200 dead total with 600 per week.
Ebola is now increasing in the 16,000 to 20,000 range per month. This means in the last two weeks ONE HALF OF ALL OFFICIALLY REPORTED EBOLA CASES, 15,000, ACTUALLY HAPPENED. It is my personal opinion it took over nine to ten months to get the first 15,000 "official cases." In the last two weeks, "they" just admitted 15 percent of ALL "official ebola infections" happened. Now where "they" get the idea Ebola is "under control" or "declining in Liberia" from this is just beyond my ability to understand.
If you have a total of 15,000 official cases, over nine months, and you get 2,000 cases in two weeks, well this means you get 4,000 new cases in one month. "They" just admitted nearly one third of ALL Ebola cases officially reported are going to happen in November of 2014. Um, gang, where in God's name is this official optimism about Ebola in Africa coming from? Are "they" using some kind of drug Doomer Doug should look into getting.<G>
Tom, I hear what you are saying about the Mali government. I think a healthy dose of fear/terror certainly has motivated them better than the farce of a reaction in either Liberia or Sierra Leone. Still, given the above "official" Ebola data, plus my times four multiplication, I am not that optimistic. I think focusing on the 600 being monitored is not what is needed. The story of the two initial cases clearly shows there were, potentially several hundred more people exposed, and they have no idea of where they are. Yep, Ebola is now spreading widely inside Mali, from Mali to who knows where.
I am just not seeing the kind of medical evidence to derail the Ebola expansion rate of a 100,000 increase every two to three weeks. About the time we get some BS story about Liberia having Ebola under control, we see a alternate news story talking about mass secret burials for instance.
I think we right now have close to 100,000 Ebola cases in Africa. This is what the logical evidence tells me from the data I can observe using a reasonable times four. The times four factor has been fairly consistently indicated since August by the vast majority of the people on the ground, whether NGO, or local people. After all, it was the Liberians who actually buried 110 people in less than 72 hours, versus the "official, government sanctioned" number of 8.
Tom, time after time, Doomer Doug has been impaled on the ON THE GROUND REALITY, AS REPORTED BY THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY DEALING WITH EBOLA, VERSUS THE LIES, MISINFORMATION AND DECEIT FROM THE POWERS THAT BE.
Sorry, Tom, but Ebola is now totally out of control in Africa. We will have, whether "they" admit it or not, 500,000 cases by the end of January 2015 at the latest.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/en/
What "they" are now saying is in November, from 11-5 to 11-19, some two weeks, Ebola infections increased by 2000 total, or 1000 a week. The deaths increased at 300 per week and 600 total. Gang, THESE NUMBERS ARE TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY INACCURATE!!!!!
Using the Doomer Doug sanctioned times four<G> number you have 8,000 total real cases, or 4,000 a week. You have 1200 dead total with 600 per week.
Ebola is now increasing in the 16,000 to 20,000 range per month. This means in the last two weeks ONE HALF OF ALL OFFICIALLY REPORTED EBOLA CASES, 15,000, ACTUALLY HAPPENED. It is my personal opinion it took over nine to ten months to get the first 15,000 "official cases." In the last two weeks, "they" just admitted 15 percent of ALL "official ebola infections" happened. Now where "they" get the idea Ebola is "under control" or "declining in Liberia" from this is just beyond my ability to understand.
If you have a total of 15,000 official cases, over nine months, and you get 2,000 cases in two weeks, well this means you get 4,000 new cases in one month. "They" just admitted nearly one third of ALL Ebola cases officially reported are going to happen in November of 2014. Um, gang, where in God's name is this official optimism about Ebola in Africa coming from? Are "they" using some kind of drug Doomer Doug should look into getting.<G>
Tom, I hear what you are saying about the Mali government. I think a healthy dose of fear/terror certainly has motivated them better than the farce of a reaction in either Liberia or Sierra Leone. Still, given the above "official" Ebola data, plus my times four multiplication, I am not that optimistic. I think focusing on the 600 being monitored is not what is needed. The story of the two initial cases clearly shows there were, potentially several hundred more people exposed, and they have no idea of where they are. Yep, Ebola is now spreading widely inside Mali, from Mali to who knows where.
I am just not seeing the kind of medical evidence to derail the Ebola expansion rate of a 100,000 increase every two to three weeks. About the time we get some BS story about Liberia having Ebola under control, we see a alternate news story talking about mass secret burials for instance.
I think we right now have close to 100,000 Ebola cases in Africa. This is what the logical evidence tells me from the data I can observe using a reasonable times four. The times four factor has been fairly consistently indicated since August by the vast majority of the people on the ground, whether NGO, or local people. After all, it was the Liberians who actually buried 110 people in less than 72 hours, versus the "official, government sanctioned" number of 8.
Tom, time after time, Doomer Doug has been impaled on the ON THE GROUND REALITY, AS REPORTED BY THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY DEALING WITH EBOLA, VERSUS THE LIES, MISINFORMATION AND DECEIT FROM THE POWERS THAT BE.
Sorry, Tom, but Ebola is now totally out of control in Africa. We will have, whether "they" admit it or not, 500,000 cases by the end of January 2015 at the latest.
Aunt Pittypat
Contributing Member
Betcha didn't hear this on national news:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_...s-sibling-placed-ebola-watch-after?source=pkg
The article states:
"An elementary school student's sibling has been placed under an Ebola virus watch, officials with the Ysleta Independent School District said Tuesday.
The sibling of an East Point Elementary School student was placed on the watch by the El Paso Department of Public Health after returning from West Africa late Monday night, officials said.
The sibling is not showing any symptoms of the disease, and no students or staff members are in "imminent danger," YISD officials said in a statement."
Also ... word is that the county hospital is preparing for numerous ebola patients by adding more isolation rooms and training more medical staff -- mainly because Fort Bliss will be one of the military installations housing soldiers returning from Africa during their mandatory quarantine.
Hmmmm .... I thought all the soldiers were gonna' be completely safe.
Again, watch what they do.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_...s-sibling-placed-ebola-watch-after?source=pkg
The article states:
"An elementary school student's sibling has been placed under an Ebola virus watch, officials with the Ysleta Independent School District said Tuesday.
The sibling of an East Point Elementary School student was placed on the watch by the El Paso Department of Public Health after returning from West Africa late Monday night, officials said.
The sibling is not showing any symptoms of the disease, and no students or staff members are in "imminent danger," YISD officials said in a statement."
Also ... word is that the county hospital is preparing for numerous ebola patients by adding more isolation rooms and training more medical staff -- mainly because Fort Bliss will be one of the military installations housing soldiers returning from Africa during their mandatory quarantine.
Hmmmm .... I thought all the soldiers were gonna' be completely safe.
Again, watch what they do.
Aunt Pittypat
Contributing Member
Well, we all know that El Paso isn't part of the real Texas. lol
Seriously, the article is linked to the El Paso Times. There's also an article about 100 Fort Bliss soldiers leaving for Africa. But whoa! A child being monitored for ebola in the area! Wow, I wonder how that's gonna' work.
The big news to me is that University Medical Center (the county hospital and the only Level 1 Trauma Center) is *quietly* preparing for ebola patients. That may or may not be on the local news. I got that from someone who works there.
Possible Impact
TB Fanatic
Or this...Potrblog.com @Potrblog · 1d
Given last night's #Ebola flight from #Guadalajara to #Atlanta
Wise to prepare for #immigration surge out of #Mexico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h2T-w7ZTCc …
Aunt Pittypat
Contributing Member
Potrblog.com @Potrblog · 1d
Given last night's #Ebola flight from #Guadalajara to #Atlanta
Wise to prepare for #immigration surge out of #Mexico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h2T-w7ZTCc …
Well, we all know that if you want to come into this country, just take a flight to Mexico and walk across the border. And if you want to bring something into this country, give a Mexican teenager $200 and he'll do it for you.
Meanwhile, this news has provoked Aunt Pittypat to look for her bottle of sherry and maybe take a sip to steady her nerves.
TxGal
Day by day
And it just keeps on coming!! Thanks for the info, both of you :-)
We have family just a few miles from SAMMC, know a whole lot of .mil folks out there at Ft Sam. Really starting to feel surrounded between the earlier Dallas event, El Paso news, and goings on at Ft Sam with the strike team training. You can probably count on all the mil hospitals gearing up, likely throughout the country.
We have family just a few miles from SAMMC, know a whole lot of .mil folks out there at Ft Sam. Really starting to feel surrounded between the earlier Dallas event, El Paso news, and goings on at Ft Sam with the strike team training. You can probably count on all the mil hospitals gearing up, likely throughout the country.
Possible Impact
TB Fanatic
Gatesville: Fort Hood Officials Brief Local Leaders
On Ebola Monitoring
http://www.kwtx.com/ourtown/home/he...al-Leaders-On-Ebola-Monitoring-283111581.html
GATESVILLE (November 18, 2014) Fort Hood officials have briefed
Gatesville leaders on the monitoring facility being established at North
Fort Hood to house troops returning from deployments to West Africa to
assist in battling the Ebola outbreak, the post said in a news release
Tuesday.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed a plan
earlier this month that included Fort Hood as one of five U.S.
installations at which troops returning from deployments to West Africa
to help in the fight against Ebola would be housed and isolated for 21
days.
The 21-day isolation period is required for service members, but
voluntary for Pentagon civilians.
There is an exemption for troops who go for short visits.
More than 500 Fort Hood troops will be among the 3,200 U.S. soldiers
deployed to West Africa to help in the fight against the historic outbreak.
The soldiers are assigned to Fort Hood's 1st Medical Brigade, the 36th
Engineer Brigade and the 85th Civil Affairs Brigade.
On Nov. 12, post officials inclding Garrison Commander Col. Matt
Elledge, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Commander Col. Patricia
Darnauer and Maj. Rich Dempsey, a III Corps plans officer assigned to
the project, briefed the local leaders about the monitoring and safety
protocols intended to ensure there is no danger to soldiers, families or
members of surrounding communities.
“It’s important that we educate Fort Hood and surrounding communities
on what we’re doing and how we will protect the Soldiers, Families and
the community,” Elledge said.
The North Fort Hood facility is scheduled to be at full operational
capacity on Friday, ready to provide monitoring and care for as many as
100 soldiers he said.
“The chances of them having (Ebola) while they are here are very, very
slim,” Dempsey said.
“We want to keep our soldiers, their families and the local communities
safe.”
No personnel that would be considered high-risk for the virus would be
sent to Fort Hood, officials said.
“They are no- to low-risk personnel,” he said.
Outgoing Gatesville Mayor David Byrom approved Fort Hood’s plan for
the containment and monitoring procedures, the post said in the news
release Tuesday.
“We appreciate what you’re doing because I do believe and have every
confidence that you are minimizing the risk,” Byrom said.
“I consider this a very low-risk operation and the right thing to do.”
Gatesville leaders on the monitoring facility being established at North
Fort Hood to house troops returning from deployments to West Africa to
assist in battling the Ebola outbreak, the post said in a news release
Tuesday.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey signed a plan
earlier this month that included Fort Hood as one of five U.S.
installations at which troops returning from deployments to West Africa
to help in the fight against Ebola would be housed and isolated for 21
days.
The 21-day isolation period is required for service members, but
voluntary for Pentagon civilians.
There is an exemption for troops who go for short visits.
More than 500 Fort Hood troops will be among the 3,200 U.S. soldiers
deployed to West Africa to help in the fight against the historic outbreak.
The soldiers are assigned to Fort Hood's 1st Medical Brigade, the 36th
Engineer Brigade and the 85th Civil Affairs Brigade.
On Nov. 12, post officials inclding Garrison Commander Col. Matt
Elledge, Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Commander Col. Patricia
Darnauer and Maj. Rich Dempsey, a III Corps plans officer assigned to
the project, briefed the local leaders about the monitoring and safety
protocols intended to ensure there is no danger to soldiers, families or
members of surrounding communities.
“It’s important that we educate Fort Hood and surrounding communities
on what we’re doing and how we will protect the Soldiers, Families and
the community,” Elledge said.
The North Fort Hood facility is scheduled to be at full operational
capacity on Friday, ready to provide monitoring and care for as many as
100 soldiers he said.
“The chances of them having (Ebola) while they are here are very, very
slim,” Dempsey said.
“We want to keep our soldiers, their families and the local communities
safe.”
No personnel that would be considered high-risk for the virus would be
sent to Fort Hood, officials said.
“They are no- to low-risk personnel,” he said.
Outgoing Gatesville Mayor David Byrom approved Fort Hood’s plan for
the containment and monitoring procedures, the post said in the news
release Tuesday.
“We appreciate what you’re doing because I do believe and have every
confidence that you are minimizing the risk,” Byrom said.
“I consider this a very low-risk operation and the right thing to do.”
Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/...eam-fidel.html
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Go, Team Fidel!/U]
Nov 19 (Reuters) - A Cuban doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease and was being sent to Geneva for treatment, officials said, the first Cuban known to have contracted the potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever.The doctor, identified by Cuba's official website Cubadebate on Tuesday as Felix Baez, is one of 165 Cuban doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. They have been there since early October.
So, for the record, that means it took Cuba exactly twice as long to spread Ebola to their people in Africa as it did for us in Dallas in a "first-world" healthcare setting.
One can only wonder how many of these before the ardor for spreading the People's Glorious Medical Socialism will cool.
But at this rate, inside a year, 5-10% of their medical contingent will have been infected.
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/...eam-fidel.html
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Go, Team Fidel!/U]
Nov 19 (Reuters) - A Cuban doctor treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the disease and was being sent to Geneva for treatment, officials said, the first Cuban known to have contracted the potentially deadly hemorrhagic fever.The doctor, identified by Cuba's official website Cubadebate on Tuesday as Felix Baez, is one of 165 Cuban doctors and nurses treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. They have been there since early October.
So, for the record, that means it took Cuba exactly twice as long to spread Ebola to their people in Africa as it did for us in Dallas in a "first-world" healthcare setting.
One can only wonder how many of these before the ardor for spreading the People's Glorious Medical Socialism will cool.
But at this rate, inside a year, 5-10% of their medical contingent will have been infected.
Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201411190807.html
Liberia: Chinese Discriminate At SKD
Winston W. Parley
A Chinese team building a hundred bed Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville has been complained to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for "shutting off" power and water supplies to counterparts that are also building another 200-bed capacity ETU at the SKD Sports Stadium in the same community.
But President Sirleaf has told Mr. Liangquan Fu, Managing Director for CICO's West Africa Headquarters that the Chinese team should cooperate with its colleagues as one team because they are doing the same work for the same people.
During President Sirleaf visit at ETUs in Monrovia Tuesday, November 18, 2014, a local architect working on the World Food Program ETU that will be run by IRC and German Red Cross, Mr. Bennie D. Tickey, said UNICEF "is exploring digging another well" after being shut off by the Chinese.
"We want you to negotiate because they say you cut their water off; you cut the light off. They had people sleeping in an empty place; you say no they must move. You need to cooperate - one team because the same work you are doing for the same people; that are the same objective, so your need to work together," the Liberian leader urged the Chinese.
As at Tuesday, November 18, ELWA -2 said it had 27 Ebola confirmed patients and seven persons with negative results; while at the MSF run unit at ELWA, there were up to 25 patients. "We rehabilitated the 900-KVA generator for the Stadium; after we did that, the Chinese crew shut us off and removed our connection," Mr. Tickey complained on Tuesday.
He said they are not connected to the Liberia Electricity Corporation public lines as well as the Water and Sewer, while the Chinese have on the other hand, cut off their lines from the well and generator at the stadium.
Mr. Tickey complained that the Chinese have shut them off from using rooms given them by the Ministry of Youth and Sports at the Stadium, including latrines in which they had initially gone to ease themselves.
Meanwhile, China said it will hand over a hundred bed capacity ETU on November 25 at SKD Sports Stadium; while the WFP 200-bed capacity ETU is expected to be opened this weekend, according to Mr. Tickey. President Sirleaf has asked the public to keep on with the preventive measures until Liberia achieves zero case of Ebola.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201411190807.html
Liberia: Chinese Discriminate At SKD
Winston W. Parley
A Chinese team building a hundred bed Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville has been complained to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for "shutting off" power and water supplies to counterparts that are also building another 200-bed capacity ETU at the SKD Sports Stadium in the same community.
But President Sirleaf has told Mr. Liangquan Fu, Managing Director for CICO's West Africa Headquarters that the Chinese team should cooperate with its colleagues as one team because they are doing the same work for the same people.
During President Sirleaf visit at ETUs in Monrovia Tuesday, November 18, 2014, a local architect working on the World Food Program ETU that will be run by IRC and German Red Cross, Mr. Bennie D. Tickey, said UNICEF "is exploring digging another well" after being shut off by the Chinese.
"We want you to negotiate because they say you cut their water off; you cut the light off. They had people sleeping in an empty place; you say no they must move. You need to cooperate - one team because the same work you are doing for the same people; that are the same objective, so your need to work together," the Liberian leader urged the Chinese.
As at Tuesday, November 18, ELWA -2 said it had 27 Ebola confirmed patients and seven persons with negative results; while at the MSF run unit at ELWA, there were up to 25 patients. "We rehabilitated the 900-KVA generator for the Stadium; after we did that, the Chinese crew shut us off and removed our connection," Mr. Tickey complained on Tuesday.
He said they are not connected to the Liberia Electricity Corporation public lines as well as the Water and Sewer, while the Chinese have on the other hand, cut off their lines from the well and generator at the stadium.
Mr. Tickey complained that the Chinese have shut them off from using rooms given them by the Ministry of Youth and Sports at the Stadium, including latrines in which they had initially gone to ease themselves.
Meanwhile, China said it will hand over a hundred bed capacity ETU on November 25 at SKD Sports Stadium; while the WFP 200-bed capacity ETU is expected to be opened this weekend, according to Mr. Tickey. President Sirleaf has asked the public to keep on with the preventive measures until Liberia achieves zero case of Ebola.
Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/ap/nati...cle_fc9bb4e6-89fa-59e0-96af-e85e054717c4.html
Hospitals improvise Ebola defenses, at a cost
DAVID B. CARUSO
What does it take to Ebola-proof a hospital?
Over the past few months, U.S. medical centers have spent millions of dollars putting together a plan to treat patients with the scary, but extremely rare disease.
To a large extent, it has been an exercise in improvisation.
In Newark, New Jersey, a hospital dealing with a space-crunch and staff anxiety moved its Ebola operation out of its main building and into a mobile medical shelter ordinarily used during natural disasters. In Dallas, Texas, three hospital systems pooled resources to create a treatment center in a defunct intensive care unit sitting empty since the spring. In Kansas, a hospital hastily built walls and hung plastic sheeting to create an isolation suite. A New York City hospital put together one unit, decided it wasn't optimal, and is finishing work on a replacement.
Federal officials have said they're trying to identify up to 20 hospitals around the country as Ebola referral centers. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspection teams have visited nearly 30 hospitals to offer advice and see if they have the right safeguards in place to treat patients with Ebola.
A U.S. House subcommittee held a hearing on Ebola preparedness Tuesday. A U.S. Senate committee had another hearing on the subject planned for Wednesday. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $6.18 billion to fight Ebola globally, some of which could be used to strengthen domestic health defenses.
There is no tried-and-true way to build an Ebola ward, but the administrators cobbling them together have been guided by a few key principals gleaned from clinics in Africa and the few full biocontainment facilities in the U.S.
At a minimum, treatment units need a "hot" zone where patients can be isolated, a "cold" zone kept free of anything that might be tainted with the virus, and a "warm" zone where workers can peel off protective gear while spotters watch for any small break in protocol. Most hospitals have also preferred to locate their Ebola treatment areas far, far from other patients.
Here is a look at some of the solutions that they've come up with in three months of frenzied planning:
___
THE MASH UNIT
The first few times patients turned up at Newark's University Hospital with symptoms that could be caused by Ebola, "we were bordering on hysteria," said Dr. Greg Sugalski, chief of the emergency department.
There was confusion about safety protocols. The emergency room was too cramped; It had two rooms for isolating patients, but no adjacent space for health care workers to get in and out of protective gear. Plus, other patients were freaking out.
"There was a lot of gawking," Sugalski said. "People were walking out, not wanting to be near someone who might have Ebola."
The solution was sitting in storage: A Western Shelter GK-1935 medical tent system — sort of an emergency room in a box that the hospital had previously deployed after Hurricane Sandy.
It quickly became a pop-up isolation unit, erected inside a vacant, unfinished floor in the hospital's ambulatory care building.
The public got a peek at the setup when it was used to quarantine Kaci Hickox, a Doctors Without Borders nurse returned from helping treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.
Hickox disparaged her three-day confinement, saying it was "inhumane" to imprison her while she was healthy. In the tent, she had to wear paper scrubs and use a port-a-potty-style toilet and could only see visitors through a plastic window.
But hospital officials said the shelter solved a multitude of problems. It was quiet, calm and distant from other patients. There was plenty of room to lay out the proper hot and warm zones. Caregivers also had space to practice going through the complicated ritual needed to safely don and doff protective suits (They went through more than 60 of them in the short time Hickox was in the unit).
"It was just a world of difference," Sugalski said.
"It lets us screen and isolate patients and not have an effect on the normal operations of the hospital," said Dennis Boos, director of University Hospital's community training center. "If we had to do this in the emergency room, we would probably lose between three and four beds."
___
THE ABANDONED ICU
When a Liberian traveler turned up sick with Ebola at a Dallas hospital in September and subsequently infected two nurses, health officials in Texas began a feverish search for facilities that could treat other victims.
They ultimately picked two. The first one was a no-brainer: The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which was already home to a national biocontainment training center.
The second was the lesser-known Methodist Campus for Continuing Care, a former full-service hospital outside Dallas that had been sitting mostly empty since the staff moved to a new campus last spring.
In some ways, having a whole, empty hospital to create the new unit was a luxury, said Dr. Sam Bagchi, the chief quality officer at Methodist Health System.
There was an intensive care unit free of any other patients. It had its own lab — one that wouldn't have to shut down for a lengthy decontamination every time it handled a sample from someone with Ebola. There was even living space where caregivers could quarantine themselves for up to three weeks.
Officials teamed Methodist with two other area hospitals, Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center, to assemble the personnel and gear needed to get the unit functioning. It is now on standby status and can be ramped up to accept a patient within 12 hours.
Bagchi said officials still had to work through a list of over a hundred problems to make the collaboration happen, including figuring out which electronic medical record system to use in the unit. All three hospitals had their own, incompatible systems.
One thing that was never discussed was cost.
"Frankly, that would have made it an almost impossible equation to solve," Bagchi said. "We would have spent any number of dollars to say we were ready to accept Ebola patients."
Now that the immediate crisis in Dallas has passed, though, that is beginning to change. It could be, he said, that there are more efficient models than having an entire medical building sitting empty, waiting for a hypothetical patient who may never appear.
At Tuesday's House hearing, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said the cost of treating Ebola patients at the biocontainment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center averaged $30,000 per day — a figure that doesn't include hundreds of thousands of dollars spent each year on extra training or the cost of emptying the 10-bed unit of other, revenue-generating patients to make way for someone with Ebola.
____
BIOCONTAINMENT ON A BUDGET
Until 2010, the nation's pre-eminent place for treating people exposed to incurable, deadly diseases like Ebola was a biocontainment unit nicknamed "the slammer," located at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Maryland.
Patients entered through airtight entry doors made of heavy steel. Caregivers wore pressurized suits. The containment suite had a chemical decontamination shower and a high-tech ventilation system designed to prevent anything but pure air from reaching the outside world. Items entering and leaving the unit could be passed through an autoclave, a disinfectant dunk tank and an ultraviolet light chamber to kill off any clinging microbes. Even the toilet water passed through a steam sterilization system.
That unit was decommissioned in 2010, in part because of new thinking that a lot of those measures were overkill.
Its successors included a few places that might be a better model for how to do bio-containment on a budget, including St. Patrick Hospital, a community hospital in Missoula, Montana, that built a high-level isolation unit in 2007 for $624,000, according to a 2010 paper in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
That's the model the University of Kansas Hospital tried to replicate in a hurry when it got its first suspected Ebola patient turned up in early October.
The Kansas City, Kansas, hospital emptied out a seven-bed patient care unit and quickly put up $10,000 worth of temporary walls and heavy plastic sheeting to create an isolation suite. It included sealed tunnels that caregivers could use to move between the patient's room and a decontamination area.
The hospital even stockpiled shoes and undergarments for doctors and nurses, who were told to dispose of every stitch as hazardous waste during decontamination.
It took less than 48 hours to determine that the patient didn't have Ebola, but since then even more light construction has been done to make it easier to ramp up in the future.
"We need to be prepared for this kind of patient. If they present, we're going to care for them. There's no alternative," said Chris Ruder, the hospital's vice president of patient care services.
A similar transformation was undertaken at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, which walled off a section of a coronary care unit to create an isolation suite after health officials said they wanted several Manhattan hospitals ready to treat Ebola within 10 days.
Administrators have already decided that new unit isn't optimal, so work is now proceeding on a second biocontainment unit.
This one is located outside the main hospital in a 20-by-100 foot temporary building previously used as construction offices.
Meanwhile, staff has been pulled from their regular duties or brought in on overtime for intensive training. Those preparations have included having clinicians practice regularly in full protective gear.
The costs of all this preparation are still being tallied.
"It's going to be in the millions. I just don't know how many millions yet," said Dr. David Reich, the hospital's president and chief operating officer.
All those expenses raise a question, Ruder said: With so few actual patients, would it make more sense to have a few, well-placed, well-funded hospitals ramp up, and save everyone else the cost?
"Should we replicate this effort times thousands of hospitals across the country ... or should we look at more of a regionalization or referral center concept?" asked Ruder. "I think that's the point of discussion that is emerging.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/ap/nati...cle_fc9bb4e6-89fa-59e0-96af-e85e054717c4.html
Hospitals improvise Ebola defenses, at a cost
DAVID B. CARUSO
What does it take to Ebola-proof a hospital?
Over the past few months, U.S. medical centers have spent millions of dollars putting together a plan to treat patients with the scary, but extremely rare disease.
To a large extent, it has been an exercise in improvisation.
In Newark, New Jersey, a hospital dealing with a space-crunch and staff anxiety moved its Ebola operation out of its main building and into a mobile medical shelter ordinarily used during natural disasters. In Dallas, Texas, three hospital systems pooled resources to create a treatment center in a defunct intensive care unit sitting empty since the spring. In Kansas, a hospital hastily built walls and hung plastic sheeting to create an isolation suite. A New York City hospital put together one unit, decided it wasn't optimal, and is finishing work on a replacement.
Federal officials have said they're trying to identify up to 20 hospitals around the country as Ebola referral centers. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention inspection teams have visited nearly 30 hospitals to offer advice and see if they have the right safeguards in place to treat patients with Ebola.
A U.S. House subcommittee held a hearing on Ebola preparedness Tuesday. A U.S. Senate committee had another hearing on the subject planned for Wednesday. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $6.18 billion to fight Ebola globally, some of which could be used to strengthen domestic health defenses.
There is no tried-and-true way to build an Ebola ward, but the administrators cobbling them together have been guided by a few key principals gleaned from clinics in Africa and the few full biocontainment facilities in the U.S.
At a minimum, treatment units need a "hot" zone where patients can be isolated, a "cold" zone kept free of anything that might be tainted with the virus, and a "warm" zone where workers can peel off protective gear while spotters watch for any small break in protocol. Most hospitals have also preferred to locate their Ebola treatment areas far, far from other patients.
Here is a look at some of the solutions that they've come up with in three months of frenzied planning:
___
THE MASH UNIT
The first few times patients turned up at Newark's University Hospital with symptoms that could be caused by Ebola, "we were bordering on hysteria," said Dr. Greg Sugalski, chief of the emergency department.
There was confusion about safety protocols. The emergency room was too cramped; It had two rooms for isolating patients, but no adjacent space for health care workers to get in and out of protective gear. Plus, other patients were freaking out.
"There was a lot of gawking," Sugalski said. "People were walking out, not wanting to be near someone who might have Ebola."
The solution was sitting in storage: A Western Shelter GK-1935 medical tent system — sort of an emergency room in a box that the hospital had previously deployed after Hurricane Sandy.
It quickly became a pop-up isolation unit, erected inside a vacant, unfinished floor in the hospital's ambulatory care building.
The public got a peek at the setup when it was used to quarantine Kaci Hickox, a Doctors Without Borders nurse returned from helping treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.
Hickox disparaged her three-day confinement, saying it was "inhumane" to imprison her while she was healthy. In the tent, she had to wear paper scrubs and use a port-a-potty-style toilet and could only see visitors through a plastic window.
But hospital officials said the shelter solved a multitude of problems. It was quiet, calm and distant from other patients. There was plenty of room to lay out the proper hot and warm zones. Caregivers also had space to practice going through the complicated ritual needed to safely don and doff protective suits (They went through more than 60 of them in the short time Hickox was in the unit).
"It was just a world of difference," Sugalski said.
"It lets us screen and isolate patients and not have an effect on the normal operations of the hospital," said Dennis Boos, director of University Hospital's community training center. "If we had to do this in the emergency room, we would probably lose between three and four beds."
___
THE ABANDONED ICU
When a Liberian traveler turned up sick with Ebola at a Dallas hospital in September and subsequently infected two nurses, health officials in Texas began a feverish search for facilities that could treat other victims.
They ultimately picked two. The first one was a no-brainer: The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, which was already home to a national biocontainment training center.
The second was the lesser-known Methodist Campus for Continuing Care, a former full-service hospital outside Dallas that had been sitting mostly empty since the staff moved to a new campus last spring.
In some ways, having a whole, empty hospital to create the new unit was a luxury, said Dr. Sam Bagchi, the chief quality officer at Methodist Health System.
There was an intensive care unit free of any other patients. It had its own lab — one that wouldn't have to shut down for a lengthy decontamination every time it handled a sample from someone with Ebola. There was even living space where caregivers could quarantine themselves for up to three weeks.
Officials teamed Methodist with two other area hospitals, Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center, to assemble the personnel and gear needed to get the unit functioning. It is now on standby status and can be ramped up to accept a patient within 12 hours.
Bagchi said officials still had to work through a list of over a hundred problems to make the collaboration happen, including figuring out which electronic medical record system to use in the unit. All three hospitals had their own, incompatible systems.
One thing that was never discussed was cost.
"Frankly, that would have made it an almost impossible equation to solve," Bagchi said. "We would have spent any number of dollars to say we were ready to accept Ebola patients."
Now that the immediate crisis in Dallas has passed, though, that is beginning to change. It could be, he said, that there are more efficient models than having an entire medical building sitting empty, waiting for a hypothetical patient who may never appear.
At Tuesday's House hearing, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said the cost of treating Ebola patients at the biocontainment unit at the Nebraska Medical Center averaged $30,000 per day — a figure that doesn't include hundreds of thousands of dollars spent each year on extra training or the cost of emptying the 10-bed unit of other, revenue-generating patients to make way for someone with Ebola.
____
BIOCONTAINMENT ON A BUDGET
Until 2010, the nation's pre-eminent place for treating people exposed to incurable, deadly diseases like Ebola was a biocontainment unit nicknamed "the slammer," located at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Maryland.
Patients entered through airtight entry doors made of heavy steel. Caregivers wore pressurized suits. The containment suite had a chemical decontamination shower and a high-tech ventilation system designed to prevent anything but pure air from reaching the outside world. Items entering and leaving the unit could be passed through an autoclave, a disinfectant dunk tank and an ultraviolet light chamber to kill off any clinging microbes. Even the toilet water passed through a steam sterilization system.
That unit was decommissioned in 2010, in part because of new thinking that a lot of those measures were overkill.
Its successors included a few places that might be a better model for how to do bio-containment on a budget, including St. Patrick Hospital, a community hospital in Missoula, Montana, that built a high-level isolation unit in 2007 for $624,000, according to a 2010 paper in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
That's the model the University of Kansas Hospital tried to replicate in a hurry when it got its first suspected Ebola patient turned up in early October.
The Kansas City, Kansas, hospital emptied out a seven-bed patient care unit and quickly put up $10,000 worth of temporary walls and heavy plastic sheeting to create an isolation suite. It included sealed tunnels that caregivers could use to move between the patient's room and a decontamination area.
The hospital even stockpiled shoes and undergarments for doctors and nurses, who were told to dispose of every stitch as hazardous waste during decontamination.
It took less than 48 hours to determine that the patient didn't have Ebola, but since then even more light construction has been done to make it easier to ramp up in the future.
"We need to be prepared for this kind of patient. If they present, we're going to care for them. There's no alternative," said Chris Ruder, the hospital's vice president of patient care services.
A similar transformation was undertaken at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, which walled off a section of a coronary care unit to create an isolation suite after health officials said they wanted several Manhattan hospitals ready to treat Ebola within 10 days.
Administrators have already decided that new unit isn't optimal, so work is now proceeding on a second biocontainment unit.
This one is located outside the main hospital in a 20-by-100 foot temporary building previously used as construction offices.
Meanwhile, staff has been pulled from their regular duties or brought in on overtime for intensive training. Those preparations have included having clinicians practice regularly in full protective gear.
The costs of all this preparation are still being tallied.
"It's going to be in the millions. I just don't know how many millions yet," said Dr. David Reich, the hospital's president and chief operating officer.
All those expenses raise a question, Ruder said: With so few actual patients, would it make more sense to have a few, well-placed, well-funded hospitals ramp up, and save everyone else the cost?
"Should we replicate this effort times thousands of hospitals across the country ... or should we look at more of a regionalization or referral center concept?" asked Ruder. "I think that's the point of discussion that is emerging.
Tom McDowell
BAMN
Via PFI: Exodia
Ebola Stokes Liberian Food Shortage as Farmers Eat Seeds
By Whitney McFerron - Nov 20, 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...erian-food-shortage-as-farmers-eat-seeds.html
The Ebola crisis is exacerbating food shortages in Liberia as a lack of labor hinders production and hungry rice farmers eat the seeds they’d normally hold back for planting next season.
Ebola will leave a lasting impact of malnutrition even as the number of new cases of the deadly disease is beginning to slow, Charles McClain, a deputy minister at the country’s Agriculture Ministry, said yesterday in an interview at an international conference on nutrition at the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization in Rome. About a third of Liberia’s 4 million people were already undernourished before the Ebola outbreak, and labor shortages stemming from the disease are affecting production, he said.
“It has affected nutrition to a great deal,” McClain said. “We sent teams out to the country to assess what the situation is, and we found out that farmers are eating their seed rice.”
Rice is a staple crop in Liberia, which produced 238,000 metric tons last year, 18 percent less than average, the FAO said in February. The country already imported about 75 percent of its grain needs.
Yields for upland rice may drop by 10 percent to 25 percent in Liberia because of labor shortages, according to a report released by the development organization Mercy Corps on Nov. 4. Government warnings against congregating in large groups mean fewer farmers are working in their traditional “kuu” system, a cooperative method in which they band together to harvest, plant and do other work in each other’s fields, according to the report.
Labor Impact
Farmers in Liberia normally harvest rice from September through December and plant new crops from April to July, according to the FAO.
Half of the West African country’s workforce is inactive because of Ebola, with the virus affecting all parts of the economy, the World Bank said yesterday. Ebola has killed 2,964 people in Liberia, according to the Health Ministry.
The country recently eased a curfew put in place to help stem the disease, McClain said. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said last week that she wouldn’t extend a state of emergency because of progress made against the virus. Patient numbers are declining at most treatment centers, even as “hotspots” of disease remain, according to a Nov. 18 statement from the president’s office.
More than 5,400 people have died from the current outbreak, according to the World Health Organization, with Guinea and Sierra Leone the hardest hit countries along with Liberia. The virus may cost West African economies as much as $32 billion through next year, the World Bank said in October.
Chronically Undernourished
The world has 805 million chronically undernourished people, 100 million less than in the previous decade, the UN said in September. Ministers and officials from more than 170 countries are meeting this week at the Second International Conference on Nutrition in Rome to discuss topics including hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.
Ebola threatens to cause a “backward slide” on the progress the world has made toward reducing hunger and malnutrition, said Asma Lateef, director of the Bread for the World Institute, a Washington-based lobby group’s policy analysis arm.
“Some of the countries that are the most affected by Ebola are also experiencing the highest burdens of under-nutrition,” Lateef said in an interview yesterday in Rome. “What we’re seeing in Ebola-affected countries is that the food systems are breaking down. As people get sick they’re unable to work in the fields and access food from the market.”
===
So they'll have to eat more bush meat?
===
.
Ebola Stokes Liberian Food Shortage as Farmers Eat Seeds
By Whitney McFerron - Nov 20, 2014
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-...erian-food-shortage-as-farmers-eat-seeds.html
The Ebola crisis is exacerbating food shortages in Liberia as a lack of labor hinders production and hungry rice farmers eat the seeds they’d normally hold back for planting next season.
Ebola will leave a lasting impact of malnutrition even as the number of new cases of the deadly disease is beginning to slow, Charles McClain, a deputy minister at the country’s Agriculture Ministry, said yesterday in an interview at an international conference on nutrition at the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization in Rome. About a third of Liberia’s 4 million people were already undernourished before the Ebola outbreak, and labor shortages stemming from the disease are affecting production, he said.
“It has affected nutrition to a great deal,” McClain said. “We sent teams out to the country to assess what the situation is, and we found out that farmers are eating their seed rice.”
Rice is a staple crop in Liberia, which produced 238,000 metric tons last year, 18 percent less than average, the FAO said in February. The country already imported about 75 percent of its grain needs.
Yields for upland rice may drop by 10 percent to 25 percent in Liberia because of labor shortages, according to a report released by the development organization Mercy Corps on Nov. 4. Government warnings against congregating in large groups mean fewer farmers are working in their traditional “kuu” system, a cooperative method in which they band together to harvest, plant and do other work in each other’s fields, according to the report.
Labor Impact
Farmers in Liberia normally harvest rice from September through December and plant new crops from April to July, according to the FAO.
Half of the West African country’s workforce is inactive because of Ebola, with the virus affecting all parts of the economy, the World Bank said yesterday. Ebola has killed 2,964 people in Liberia, according to the Health Ministry.
The country recently eased a curfew put in place to help stem the disease, McClain said. President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said last week that she wouldn’t extend a state of emergency because of progress made against the virus. Patient numbers are declining at most treatment centers, even as “hotspots” of disease remain, according to a Nov. 18 statement from the president’s office.
More than 5,400 people have died from the current outbreak, according to the World Health Organization, with Guinea and Sierra Leone the hardest hit countries along with Liberia. The virus may cost West African economies as much as $32 billion through next year, the World Bank said in October.
Chronically Undernourished
The world has 805 million chronically undernourished people, 100 million less than in the previous decade, the UN said in September. Ministers and officials from more than 170 countries are meeting this week at the Second International Conference on Nutrition in Rome to discuss topics including hunger, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity.
Ebola threatens to cause a “backward slide” on the progress the world has made toward reducing hunger and malnutrition, said Asma Lateef, director of the Bread for the World Institute, a Washington-based lobby group’s policy analysis arm.
“Some of the countries that are the most affected by Ebola are also experiencing the highest burdens of under-nutrition,” Lateef said in an interview yesterday in Rome. “What we’re seeing in Ebola-affected countries is that the food systems are breaking down. As people get sick they’re unable to work in the fields and access food from the market.”
===
So they'll have to eat more bush meat?
===
.
Last edited:
Tom McDowell
BAMN
Via PFI: Exodia
Ebola spreading intensely in Sierra Leone as toll rises: WHO
Photo
Wed, Nov 19 2014
By Stephanie Nebehay
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-health-ebola-who-idUSKCN0J31ZU20141119?rpc=401
GENEVA (Reuters) - The toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,420 deaths out of 15,145 cases in eight countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, with transmission of the deadly virus still "intense and widespread" in Sierra Leone.
The figures, through Nov. 16, represent a jump of 243 deaths and 732 cases since those issued last Friday, and cases continue to be under-reported, the WHO said in its latest update.
Sierra Leone, a former British colony, confirmed 533 new cases in the week to Nov. 16, it said, accounting for much of the increase. It also reported 63 deaths since last Friday.
"Much of this was driven by intense transmission in the country's west and north," the WHO said.
The capital Freetown, which accounted for 168 new confirmed cases, and nearby Port Loko were particularly hard-hit.
A Cuban doctor infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone will be flown to Switzerland in the next 48 hours for hospitalization in Geneva, Swiss health authorities said on Wednesday. He is the first Cuban known to have contracted the disease.
The outbreaks in Guinea and Liberia currently appear to be driven by intense transmission in several key districts, the WHO said, citing N'Zerekore and Macenta in Guinea and Montserrado in Liberia, which includes the capital Monrovia.
In the three most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - 1,159 beds are now operational in 18 Ebola treatment centers, or one-quarter percent of beds planned, according to the U.N. agency. But only 13 percent of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone are in isolation, its figures show.
"As this number increases, so does the capacity to isolate patients and prevent further transmission of the disease."
Authorities in Mali have reported 6 Ebola cases including five deaths, the WHO said. All contacts of its first case, a two-year-old girl who died in October, have survived the 21-day incubation period.
The remaining cases have been in Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Wednesday that her government has the upper hand in the fight against Ebola, but warned against complacency or any reduction in international support.
WHO said that in Liberia, 80 probable cases were reported in the week to 15 November. "Nationally, on average, between 10 and 20 laboratory-confirmed cases are being reported each day."
===
.
Ebola spreading intensely in Sierra Leone as toll rises: WHO
Photo
Wed, Nov 19 2014
By Stephanie Nebehay
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-health-ebola-who-idUSKCN0J31ZU20141119?rpc=401
GENEVA (Reuters) - The toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,420 deaths out of 15,145 cases in eight countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, with transmission of the deadly virus still "intense and widespread" in Sierra Leone.
The figures, through Nov. 16, represent a jump of 243 deaths and 732 cases since those issued last Friday, and cases continue to be under-reported, the WHO said in its latest update.
Sierra Leone, a former British colony, confirmed 533 new cases in the week to Nov. 16, it said, accounting for much of the increase. It also reported 63 deaths since last Friday.
"Much of this was driven by intense transmission in the country's west and north," the WHO said.
The capital Freetown, which accounted for 168 new confirmed cases, and nearby Port Loko were particularly hard-hit.
A Cuban doctor infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone will be flown to Switzerland in the next 48 hours for hospitalization in Geneva, Swiss health authorities said on Wednesday. He is the first Cuban known to have contracted the disease.
The outbreaks in Guinea and Liberia currently appear to be driven by intense transmission in several key districts, the WHO said, citing N'Zerekore and Macenta in Guinea and Montserrado in Liberia, which includes the capital Monrovia.
In the three most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - 1,159 beds are now operational in 18 Ebola treatment centers, or one-quarter percent of beds planned, according to the U.N. agency. But only 13 percent of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone are in isolation, its figures show.
"As this number increases, so does the capacity to isolate patients and prevent further transmission of the disease."
Authorities in Mali have reported 6 Ebola cases including five deaths, the WHO said. All contacts of its first case, a two-year-old girl who died in October, have survived the 21-day incubation period.
The remaining cases have been in Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Wednesday that her government has the upper hand in the fight against Ebola, but warned against complacency or any reduction in international support.
WHO said that in Liberia, 80 probable cases were reported in the week to 15 November. "Nationally, on average, between 10 and 20 laboratory-confirmed cases are being reported each day."
===
.
this is interesting.
as the societies start to fall apart over there , this is the first indication of a military response to the devolution.
undoubtedly will happen all over the world i the next two years.
i wonder what he means by ":force"?
http://awoko.org/2014/11/20/sierra-leone-news-we-will-use-force-if-nerc-boss/
Sierra Leone News: We will use force if… NERC boss
CEO Alfred Palo ContehChief Executive Officer of National Ebola Response Center (NERC), Retired Major Palo Conteh says that he had been using the soft approach but people have refused to change, so now he will use military tactics to fight Ebola.
The retired Major and Defence Minister said since he took over NERC on November 1, he has been calling on Sierra Leoneans to change their attitude for Ebola to be eradicated, but if they continue in this vein, he will be left with no alternative but to use force.
He made this pronouncement during his weekly press briefing at the Special Court yesterday. He said since Ebola started, they have been sensitizing the public to follow all the preventive measures, including not touching sick people, should not wash dead bodies, report every case to the nearest health center or call 117, but said the number of infections keep rising.
This he said, will force him to use force to combat the spread.
“I am now using the ‘carrot and stick approach’, I have been giving out the carrot since I took over but our people still do the wrong things, When I start using the stick, I will see all kinds of headlines in papers and radio programmes but will not be deterred by them” he said.
Rtd. Maj. Palo Conteh said over the weekend, a chief in Bombali was penalized by the President for failing to do the right thing. “He was fined heavily and his staff taken”, this he said will send the right message to others who fail to adhere to the directives of the Government.
[by his staff taken i think it means his office was taken away]
Talking about the allowances being paid to health workers, he said it is frustrating to see how some of these people are cheating, and creating problems for them.
The NERC boss said some go to one region to collect money and then travel to another to collect again. “Even at this crucial time that people are dying, there are others who think they need to enrich themselves, as they don’t want this epidemic to come to an end. However, we will deal with the issue decisively and those who are caught in this act will be punished.”
He said President Koroma yesterday morning called the wife of late Dr Martin Sallia to console and sympathize with her and the family for the loss. He said it was a good decision taken by the President and he hoped the wife would understand that the Government and people are with her at this time of mourning.
However, he stressed that US Center for Disease Control did a survey and they found out that
70 percent of health workers who have died, never contacted the disease within Government hospitals or Treatment centers.
“This is the reason why I have advised the Chief Medical Officer to take a stern decision that if you are working for Government, you should stop all private practices until Ebola is over.”
The CEO said NERC is determined to win this fight, as they are coordinating the efforts of all supporting countries and agencies to synchronize their efforts, so they can work as a team. He said more beds are needed and the other facilities built by the British will be up and running by the end of the month, which he said will be about 700 beds, to help win the battle.
He said he was saddened by the death of two doctors within 24 hours and sent out his condolences to the family while hoping that no more will die. He said the Kerry Town center is gradually picking up and will soon be effective in the fight.
When asked if they will think of using the Ebola patient for cash approach that the UN used in terms of ‘arms for cash’ to end the war, he laughed and said it is not a bad idea, as they are looking out for any option that will bring the scourge to an end. He said they will discuss it in their meetings and any other options they have to kick the virus out of the country.
Retired Major Palo Conteh appealed to the Press to continue to send out the right message to the people, who have still refused to change their attitude. He also said the President was in Magburuka and spoke in Temne to them, so they will understand, but after they left there, they received a disturbing message of a corpse that was exhumed and action will be taken against them soon.
[what does this mean???]
He said the coordination is fine and they will continue to work with all agencies and friends as they fight to win this battle.
Thursday November 20, 2014
as the societies start to fall apart over there , this is the first indication of a military response to the devolution.
undoubtedly will happen all over the world i the next two years.
i wonder what he means by ":force"?
http://awoko.org/2014/11/20/sierra-leone-news-we-will-use-force-if-nerc-boss/
Sierra Leone News: We will use force if… NERC boss
CEO Alfred Palo ContehChief Executive Officer of National Ebola Response Center (NERC), Retired Major Palo Conteh says that he had been using the soft approach but people have refused to change, so now he will use military tactics to fight Ebola.
The retired Major and Defence Minister said since he took over NERC on November 1, he has been calling on Sierra Leoneans to change their attitude for Ebola to be eradicated, but if they continue in this vein, he will be left with no alternative but to use force.
He made this pronouncement during his weekly press briefing at the Special Court yesterday. He said since Ebola started, they have been sensitizing the public to follow all the preventive measures, including not touching sick people, should not wash dead bodies, report every case to the nearest health center or call 117, but said the number of infections keep rising.
This he said, will force him to use force to combat the spread.
“I am now using the ‘carrot and stick approach’, I have been giving out the carrot since I took over but our people still do the wrong things, When I start using the stick, I will see all kinds of headlines in papers and radio programmes but will not be deterred by them” he said.
Rtd. Maj. Palo Conteh said over the weekend, a chief in Bombali was penalized by the President for failing to do the right thing. “He was fined heavily and his staff taken”, this he said will send the right message to others who fail to adhere to the directives of the Government.
[by his staff taken i think it means his office was taken away]
Talking about the allowances being paid to health workers, he said it is frustrating to see how some of these people are cheating, and creating problems for them.
The NERC boss said some go to one region to collect money and then travel to another to collect again. “Even at this crucial time that people are dying, there are others who think they need to enrich themselves, as they don’t want this epidemic to come to an end. However, we will deal with the issue decisively and those who are caught in this act will be punished.”
He said President Koroma yesterday morning called the wife of late Dr Martin Sallia to console and sympathize with her and the family for the loss. He said it was a good decision taken by the President and he hoped the wife would understand that the Government and people are with her at this time of mourning.
However, he stressed that US Center for Disease Control did a survey and they found out that
70 percent of health workers who have died, never contacted the disease within Government hospitals or Treatment centers.
“This is the reason why I have advised the Chief Medical Officer to take a stern decision that if you are working for Government, you should stop all private practices until Ebola is over.”
The CEO said NERC is determined to win this fight, as they are coordinating the efforts of all supporting countries and agencies to synchronize their efforts, so they can work as a team. He said more beds are needed and the other facilities built by the British will be up and running by the end of the month, which he said will be about 700 beds, to help win the battle.
He said he was saddened by the death of two doctors within 24 hours and sent out his condolences to the family while hoping that no more will die. He said the Kerry Town center is gradually picking up and will soon be effective in the fight.
When asked if they will think of using the Ebola patient for cash approach that the UN used in terms of ‘arms for cash’ to end the war, he laughed and said it is not a bad idea, as they are looking out for any option that will bring the scourge to an end. He said they will discuss it in their meetings and any other options they have to kick the virus out of the country.
Retired Major Palo Conteh appealed to the Press to continue to send out the right message to the people, who have still refused to change their attitude. He also said the President was in Magburuka and spoke in Temne to them, so they will understand, but after they left there, they received a disturbing message of a corpse that was exhumed and action will be taken against them soon.
[what does this mean???]
He said the coordination is fine and they will continue to work with all agencies and friends as they fight to win this battle.
Thursday November 20, 2014
Cascadians
Leska Emerald Adams
squirt squirt
no longer an alert
blood bleed
no news feed
melt squish
nobody's gonna dish
Nobola liquidates
silent lethal fate
no longer an alert
blood bleed
no news feed
melt squish
nobody's gonna dish
Nobola liquidates
silent lethal fate
Lilbitsnana
On TB every waking moment
Missouri
Ebola @FollowEbola 8m8 minutes ago
Patient being evaluated for possible #Ebola infection at Jefferson County hospital. http://zpr.io/qGB8
posted for fair use
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...cle_58f52b20-8c19-5e15-98f8-59077e5f3b83.html
Patient being evaluated for possible Ebola infection at Jefferson County hospital
Print Email
1 hour ago • From staff reports
CRYSTAL CITY • Mercy Hospital Jefferson is treating a person who is possibly infected with Ebola, officials confirmed.
The patient recently returned from West Africa, according to Mercy spokeswoman Bethany Pope.
The patient is considered low risk and is in isolation in a separate facility used for outpatient surgery on the hospital campus.
The hospital is working in collaboration with the Jefferson County Health Department.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are aware of the situation, according to a federal official.
The laboratory test to confirm if the patient has Ebola takes four to six hours, said Dr. Nirav Patel, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at St. Louis University. The testing will occur at a lab in Jefferson City, Patel and a federal official confirmed. Jefferson City is more than a two-hour drive from the hospital's campus.
The hospital, about 35 miles south of downtown St. Louis, is at 1400 Highway 61 South and has 251-beds.
The hospital is part of the Chesterfield-based Catholic health care system Mercy Health. The health system operates 32 acute care hospitals in four states.
Ebola @FollowEbola 8m8 minutes ago
Patient being evaluated for possible #Ebola infection at Jefferson County hospital. http://zpr.io/qGB8
posted for fair use
http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/...cle_58f52b20-8c19-5e15-98f8-59077e5f3b83.html
Patient being evaluated for possible Ebola infection at Jefferson County hospital
Print Email
1 hour ago • From staff reports
CRYSTAL CITY • Mercy Hospital Jefferson is treating a person who is possibly infected with Ebola, officials confirmed.
The patient recently returned from West Africa, according to Mercy spokeswoman Bethany Pope.
The patient is considered low risk and is in isolation in a separate facility used for outpatient surgery on the hospital campus.
The hospital is working in collaboration with the Jefferson County Health Department.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are aware of the situation, according to a federal official.
The laboratory test to confirm if the patient has Ebola takes four to six hours, said Dr. Nirav Patel, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at St. Louis University. The testing will occur at a lab in Jefferson City, Patel and a federal official confirmed. Jefferson City is more than a two-hour drive from the hospital's campus.
The hospital, about 35 miles south of downtown St. Louis, is at 1400 Highway 61 South and has 251-beds.
The hospital is part of the Chesterfield-based Catholic health care system Mercy Health. The health system operates 32 acute care hospitals in four states.
Suzieq
Veteran Member
Person From Mali Isolated, Being Tested For Ebola At Bellevue Hospital
November 20, 2014 1:54 PM
*NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A person who recently came to the United States from Mali, a West African country with limited Ebola transmission, has been isolated at Bellevue Hospital and will be tested for the disease, city health officials said.
Results are expected later Thursday, the Health Department and Health and Hospitals Corporation said in a joint statement.
The news comes a day after sources told CBS2 a woman who died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack in a Brooklyn hair salon tested negative for Ebola.
The woman, who was in her 40s, was placed on a list for possible Ebola exposure after returning from Guinea – one of three West African countries hit hardest by the disease — three weeks ago, sources said.
She had shown no signs or symptoms of Ebola, but due to her travel history within the 21-day possible incubation period for Ebola and an abundance of caution, an Ebola test was performed on her remains, the Health Department said.
Dr. Craig Spencer is the only person New York City to have been stricken with a confirmed case of Ebola. He was successfully treated for Ebola the virus at Bellevue Hospital Center, and was released from the hospital last week.
*(Fair Use)
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/11...-being-tested-for-ebola-at-bellevue-hospital/
Litlbit,
I heard STL now has ebola patient in the area.
Now if they would just transfer him up to Ferguson......................
Melodi
Disaster Cat
While it is difficult to find any humor at all in this topic, my husband just sent me a You Tube video making the rounds at his medical school - while this is funny in an ironic sort of way it is also pretty darn true, especially when it is obviously talking about the case of Mr. Duncan, along with the screw ups and cover-ups since that time.
the watcher
Inactive
Holy crap! New Orleans! Bleeding from the eyes. Looks like the second wave is starting. Hang on kids. I have a copy of this vid saved "just in case"
New Orleans Frightening Encounter - NOLA EBOLA
Published on Nov 18, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZuyhMMvye4#t=121
Screen shot from Video
New Orleans Frightening Encounter - NOLA EBOLA
Published on Nov 18, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZuyhMMvye4#t=121
Screen shot from Video
Suzieq
Veteran Member
Possible Ebola patient at Mercy hospital in Jefferson County in Missouri
Nov 20, 2014, 10:30am CST Updated: Nov 20, 2014, 4:39pm CST
A nurse who recently returned from West Africa is being evaluated for possible Ebola infection by Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City.
The facility, at 1400 Highway 61 South, is working in collaboration with the Jefferson County Health Department, according to a statement by hospital officials.
The patient is considered low risk, according to hospital officials, "but we are taking all appropriate safety precautions, using protocols established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
County officials confirmed that the patient is a nurse.
The patient is isolated in a separate facility on Mercy's property and is being treated by specially trained staff members who are caring only for this patient, officials said.
The patient was admitted Wednesday night, Doug Dodson, director of the Jefferson County Health Department, told the Business Journal.
He said the main goal is to get laboratory specimens from the patient tested for the Ebola virus in the "appropriate time frame." The viral load, which is lower when a patient first shows symptoms, determines whether a test can "find" the virus, Dodson said.
Warren Robinson, director of emergency management for Jefferson County, said that samples from the patient were sent to a lab in Jefferson City for testing, however he was unable to say how long it would take for results to be returned. The county has been in contact with both the CDC and state officials, Robinson said.
Mercy Hospital Jefferson is part of St. Louis-based Mercy, which says it's the fifth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. The system includes 33 hospitals and nearly 700 clinic and outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Missouri.
*(Fair Use)
Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2014/11/20/mercy-hospital-in-jefferson-county-checking.html
Nov 20, 2014, 10:30am CST Updated: Nov 20, 2014, 4:39pm CST
A nurse who recently returned from West Africa is being evaluated for possible Ebola infection by Mercy Hospital Jefferson in Crystal City.
The facility, at 1400 Highway 61 South, is working in collaboration with the Jefferson County Health Department, according to a statement by hospital officials.
The patient is considered low risk, according to hospital officials, "but we are taking all appropriate safety precautions, using protocols established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
County officials confirmed that the patient is a nurse.
The patient is isolated in a separate facility on Mercy's property and is being treated by specially trained staff members who are caring only for this patient, officials said.
The patient was admitted Wednesday night, Doug Dodson, director of the Jefferson County Health Department, told the Business Journal.
He said the main goal is to get laboratory specimens from the patient tested for the Ebola virus in the "appropriate time frame." The viral load, which is lower when a patient first shows symptoms, determines whether a test can "find" the virus, Dodson said.
Warren Robinson, director of emergency management for Jefferson County, said that samples from the patient were sent to a lab in Jefferson City for testing, however he was unable to say how long it would take for results to be returned. The county has been in contact with both the CDC and state officials, Robinson said.
Mercy Hospital Jefferson is part of St. Louis-based Mercy, which says it's the fifth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. The system includes 33 hospitals and nearly 700 clinic and outpatient facilities in Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Missouri.
*(Fair Use)
Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2014/11/20/mercy-hospital-in-jefferson-county-checking.html
Suzieq
Veteran Member
This article is now saying the test are negative!
Local woman tests 'negative' for Ebola, but still kept in isolation
KMOV.com
Posted on November 20, 2014 at 9:39 AM
Updated yesterday at 10:20 PM
*ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – Authorities said the test results for a local nurse being monitored for Ebola were negative.
A test was conducted Thursday. Officials at Mercy Hospital said the patient is isolated in a separate facility with specially trained staff providing care under specifications provided by the Centers for Disease Control. She will checked for a fever for 21 days. Two other labs are working to confirm the 'negative' test result.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Health Department says the woman went to Africa as a nurse consultant, but did not provide direct care to Ebola patients. The woman has been back in America for about a week and had a fever Thursday morning. She was tested before entering America. The patient went to the hospital as a precaution.
*(Fair Use)
Read more: http://www.kmov.com/news/health/Loc...ept-in-isolation-283345051.html#ixzz3JhqOsX9y
Local woman tests 'negative' for Ebola, but still kept in isolation
KMOV.com
Posted on November 20, 2014 at 9:39 AM
Updated yesterday at 10:20 PM
*ST. LOUIS (KMOV.com) – Authorities said the test results for a local nurse being monitored for Ebola were negative.
A test was conducted Thursday. Officials at Mercy Hospital said the patient is isolated in a separate facility with specially trained staff providing care under specifications provided by the Centers for Disease Control. She will checked for a fever for 21 days. Two other labs are working to confirm the 'negative' test result.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Health Department says the woman went to Africa as a nurse consultant, but did not provide direct care to Ebola patients. The woman has been back in America for about a week and had a fever Thursday morning. She was tested before entering America. The patient went to the hospital as a precaution.
*(Fair Use)
Read more: http://www.kmov.com/news/health/Loc...ept-in-isolation-283345051.html#ixzz3JhqOsX9y
Plain Jane
Just Plain Jane
•
Ebola blood stolen by bandits in Guinea
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Associated Press | Posted: November 21, 2014 4:51 pm | Updated: November 21, 2014 4:54 pm
Officials in Guinea say bandits during a roadside robbery stole a cooler containing blood samples that are believed to have Ebola.
National health officials said Friday the vehicle was transporting test tubes containing blood. It was traveling from Kankan prefecture in central Guinea to a test site in Gueckedou, in the south.
Guinea Red Cross press officer Faya Etienne Tolno said the bandits held up the minibus taxi carrying the samples from a suspected Ebola patient on Wednesday. Why they took the blood samples is unknown.
Officials appealed on national radio for the thieves to return the potentially dangerous blood samples.
Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, is spread primarily by contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, feces and vomit.
http://indianexpress.com/article/world/middle-east-africa/ebola-blood-stolen-by-bandits-in-guinea
H/T flutrackers.com
The discussion on flutrackers is that these vials were taken inadvertently along with everything else in the van. However I remind you that Guinea is 85% Muslim. Boko Haram has not yet shown activity in Guinea, but think of the opportunities for them.
Ebola blood stolen by bandits in Guinea
Ads by Google
Associated Press | Posted: November 21, 2014 4:51 pm | Updated: November 21, 2014 4:54 pm
Officials in Guinea say bandits during a roadside robbery stole a cooler containing blood samples that are believed to have Ebola.
National health officials said Friday the vehicle was transporting test tubes containing blood. It was traveling from Kankan prefecture in central Guinea to a test site in Gueckedou, in the south.
Guinea Red Cross press officer Faya Etienne Tolno said the bandits held up the minibus taxi carrying the samples from a suspected Ebola patient on Wednesday. Why they took the blood samples is unknown.
Officials appealed on national radio for the thieves to return the potentially dangerous blood samples.
Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, is spread primarily by contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, feces and vomit.
http://indianexpress.com/article/world/middle-east-africa/ebola-blood-stolen-by-bandits-in-guinea
H/T flutrackers.com
The discussion on flutrackers is that these vials were taken inadvertently along with everything else in the van. However I remind you that Guinea is 85% Muslim. Boko Haram has not yet shown activity in Guinea, but think of the opportunities for them.
Last edited:
the watcher
Inactive
Plastic vial threatening to contain Ebola sent to NZ Herald
A PLASTIC vial supposedly containing a sample of the deadly Ebola virus has been sent to a major New Zealand newspaper, reports suggest.
Sky News Melbourne bureau chief Ahron Young said the vial was part of a package from a “jihadist group” sent to an office this morning, later confirmed to be the New Zealand Herald.
It arrived with a letter claiming that the liquid was a sample of Ebola. It was understood that the mailroom was evacuated and the staff were hosed down.
According to a tweet sent by the Herald, the vial was originally sent to the mailroom, but “all precautions were taken”.
#BREAKING Vial sent to Australia for testing for Ebola was originally sent to the @nzherald mailroom. All precautions were taken. More soon.
— nzherald (@nzherald) November 11, 2014
The Herald Sun and the New Zealand Herald both report that the delivery is a suspected hoax, but the sample has been sent to Melbourne’s specialist Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory to determine if it contains the killer disease.
Auckland police said a small amount of liquid in a plastic bottle had been sent to the Herald office in a suspicious package along with some documents, one of which mentioned Ebola.
As a precaution, police sent the bottle to be swabbed for DNA and checked for fingerprints before being sent to Melbourne for testing. Results are expected within days.
Health officials who attended assured the small number of staff who worked in the mail room that the risk of contamination was almost non-existent.
“Police are often called to deal with and investigate the origins and contents of suspicious packages,” Detective Inspector Scott Beard said.
“The vast majority of them turn out to be benign but we don’t take any chances. This is no exception.”
http://www.news.com.au/world/plasti...ent-to-nz-herald/story-fndir2ev-1227119525720
A PLASTIC vial supposedly containing a sample of the deadly Ebola virus has been sent to a major New Zealand newspaper, reports suggest.
Sky News Melbourne bureau chief Ahron Young said the vial was part of a package from a “jihadist group” sent to an office this morning, later confirmed to be the New Zealand Herald.
It arrived with a letter claiming that the liquid was a sample of Ebola. It was understood that the mailroom was evacuated and the staff were hosed down.
According to a tweet sent by the Herald, the vial was originally sent to the mailroom, but “all precautions were taken”.
#BREAKING Vial sent to Australia for testing for Ebola was originally sent to the @nzherald mailroom. All precautions were taken. More soon.
— nzherald (@nzherald) November 11, 2014
The Herald Sun and the New Zealand Herald both report that the delivery is a suspected hoax, but the sample has been sent to Melbourne’s specialist Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory to determine if it contains the killer disease.
Auckland police said a small amount of liquid in a plastic bottle had been sent to the Herald office in a suspicious package along with some documents, one of which mentioned Ebola.
As a precaution, police sent the bottle to be swabbed for DNA and checked for fingerprints before being sent to Melbourne for testing. Results are expected within days.
Health officials who attended assured the small number of staff who worked in the mail room that the risk of contamination was almost non-existent.
“Police are often called to deal with and investigate the origins and contents of suspicious packages,” Detective Inspector Scott Beard said.
“The vast majority of them turn out to be benign but we don’t take any chances. This is no exception.”
http://www.news.com.au/world/plasti...ent-to-nz-herald/story-fndir2ev-1227119525720
Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2014/11/like-squeezing-handful-of-jello.html
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Like Squeezing A Handful Of Jello
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The World Health Organization says the transmission of Ebola remains "intense" and widespread in Sierra Leone, even as some improvements are being seen in the two other countries worst hit by the crisis.
Nearly 200 new cases were confirmed in Sierra Leone's capital in a recent one-week period.
The WHO report released late Wednesday indicated that Sierra Leone had the lowest percentage of Ebola patients who had been isolated — only 13 percent.
FTR, that means Sierra Leone's containment is going backwards.
Posted by Aesop at 6:09 AM
Labels: Ebola
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2014/11/like-squeezing-handful-of-jello.html
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Like Squeezing A Handful Of Jello
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The World Health Organization says the transmission of Ebola remains "intense" and widespread in Sierra Leone, even as some improvements are being seen in the two other countries worst hit by the crisis.
Nearly 200 new cases were confirmed in Sierra Leone's capital in a recent one-week period.
The WHO report released late Wednesday indicated that Sierra Leone had the lowest percentage of Ebola patients who had been isolated — only 13 percent.
FTR, that means Sierra Leone's containment is going backwards.
Posted by Aesop at 6:09 AM
Labels: Ebola