CNN: 2 Ebola patients returning to U.S.

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/02/health/ebola-vaccine-trial/index.html

Human trial of experimental Ebola vaccine begins this week

 

 A highly anticipated test of an experimental Ebola vaccine will begin this week at the National Institutes of Health, amid mounting anxiety about the spread of the deadly virus in West Africa.

 

After an expedited review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers were given the green light to begin what's called a human safety trial, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

 

It will be the first test of this type of Ebola vaccine in humans.

 

The experimental vaccine, developed by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the NIAID, will first be given to three healthy human volunteers to see if they suffer any adverse effects. If deemed safe, it will then be given to another small group of volunteers, aged 18 to 50, to see if it produces a strong immune response to the virus. All will be monitored closely for side effects.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/506850435739947008

BREAKING: Missionary group says another American doctor infected with Ebola in Liberia.

1:05 PM

 

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/un-warns-food-prices-rising-ebola-hit-countries

GROUP SAYS WORLD IS LOSING BATTLE AGAINST EBOLA

 

The international group Doctor Without Borders warned Tuesday that the world is losing the battle against Ebola and lamented that treatment centers in West Africa have been "reduced to places where people go to die alone" as authorities race to contain the disease.

 

In Liberia, a missionary organization announced that another American doctor has become infected.

 

Doctors Without Borders President Joanne Liu said her organization is completely overwhelmed by Ebola outbreak in four West African countries. She said treatment centers can offer little more than palliative care and called on other countries to contribute civilian and military medical personnel familiar with biological disasters.

 

World Health Organization Director Margaret Chan warned that the outbreak would "get worse before it will get better" and would require a larger global response. She thanked countries that have helped but said: "We need more from you. And we also need those countries that have not come on board."

 

The latest missionary to come down with the disease, a male obstetrician, was not immediately identified by the group Serving In Mission. He did not work in an Ebola ward. The group did not specify how he contracted Ebola, but it can be spread through vaginal fluids.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/03/us-health-ebola-idUSKBN0GY1V320140903?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Guinea detects Ebola in new region as U.S. warns outbreak out of control

 

Guinea's government said on Wednesday that Ebola had spread to a previously unaffected region of the country, as U.S. experts warned that the worst ever outbreak of the deadly virus was spiraling out of control in West Africa.

 

Guinea, the first country to detect the hemorrhagic fever in March, had said it was containing the outbreak but authorities announced that nine new cases had been found in the southeastern prefecture of Kerouane.

 

The area, some 750 km (470 miles) southeast of the capital Conakry, lies close to where the virus was first detected deep in Guinea's forest region. The epidemic has since spread to four other West African countries and killed more than 1,500 people.

 

"There has been a new outbreak in Kerouane but we have sent in a team to contain it," said Aboubacar Sikidi Diakité, head of Guinea's Ebola task force. He insisted the outbreak was being contained.

 

The nine confirmed cases were in the town of Damaro in the Kerouane region, with a total of 18 people under observation, the health ministry said in a statement.

 

The latest outbreak started after the arrival of an infected person from neighboring Liberia, the ministry said. Guinea has recorded a total of 489 deaths and 749 Ebola cases as of Sept. 1.

[Larry]

U.S. warns outbreak out of control

 

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/sierra-leone-have-lockdown-amid-ebola-crisis

SIERRA LEONE TO HAVE LOCKDOWN AMID EBOLA CRISIS

 

Authorities are ordering people in Sierra Leone to stay inside their homes for three days later this month as part of an effort to stop the spread of Ebola, which has killed more than 2,000 people across West Africa, a government spokesman said Saturday.

 

Abdulai Bayraytay said the government is telling people to stay inside their homes on Sept. 19, 20 and 21. The dates were chosen to give people enough time to stock up on food and other provisions before the ban on movement goes into effect, he said.

 

Already though some are questioning whether the measure will help. Doctors Without Borders says it "will be extremely difficult for health workers to accurately identify cases through door-to-door screening."

 

Even if suspected cases are identified during the lockdown, the group says Sierra Leone doesn't have enough beds for them.

 

"Without a place to take suspected cases — to screen and treat them — the approach cannot work," the group said Saturday. "It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end up driving people underground and jeopardizing the trust between people and health providers. This leads to the concealment of potential cases and ends up spreading the disease further."

 

Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people across West Africa, including more than 400 deaths in Sierra Leone.

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29115298

Ebola crisis: Liberia 'faces huge surge', says WHO

 

Ebola is spreading exponentially in Liberia, with thousands of new cases expected in the next three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

 

Conventional methods to control the outbreak were "not having an adequate impact", the UN's health agency added.

 

At least 2,100 people infected with Ebola have died in the West African states of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria this year.

 

The WHO says 79 health workers have been killed by the virus.

 

Organisations combating the outbreak needed to scale-up efforts "three-to-four fold", the WHO said.

 

It highlighted Liberia's Montserrado county, where 1,000 beds were needed for infected Ebola patients but only 240 were available, leading to people being turned away from treatment centres.

 

Transmission of the virus in Liberia was "already intense", and taxis being used to transport infected patients appeared to be "a hot source of potential virus transmission", the WHO said.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/african-union-calls-ebola-travel-bans-lifted-163924718.html;_ylt=AwrBJSA93g1UyXgACjDQtDMD

African Union calls for Ebola travel bans to be lifted

 

 African Union members said Monday travel bans imposed to stem the deadly Ebola epidemic should be lifted to ensure the economic impact of the restrictions do not add to continent's woes.

 

"It was agreed that as African member states we should urge all member states to lift all travel bans, so that people can move between countries, and to trade, and to open up the economic activities," AU commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told reporters.

 

"But it was also stressed that whilst the travel ban should be lifted, there should be proper screening mechanisms put in place, both at the countries where citizens will be departing and at the ports of entry, whether it's airports, or land ports of entry, or sea ports."

 

The death toll from the Ebola epidemic -- which is spreading across west Africa, with Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone the worst hit -- has topped 2,000, of nearly 4,000 people who have been infected, according to the World Health Organisation.

 

In the scramble to halt the contagion, some affected countries have imposed quarantines on whole regions while others which are so far spared from the deadly virus have halted flights to affected countries.

 

Dlamini-Zuma told the executive council of the 54-member body, meeting at the bloc's headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, of the urgent need to "craft a united, comprehensive and collective African response" to the outbreak.

 

The decision was made at the close of a one-day emergency AU meeting on Ebola, held as hopes rose of a potential vaccine to provide temporary shield against Ebola.

[RemoveSnyder]

 

http://www.addictinggames.com/strategy-games/pandemic2.jsp

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/world/africa/liberian-president-pleads-with-obama-for-assistance-in-combating-ebola.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=0

Liberian President Pleads With Obama for Assistance in Combating Ebola

 

The president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has implored President Obama for help in managing her country’s rapidly expanding Ebola crisis and has warned that without American assistance the disease could send Liberia into the civil chaos that enveloped the country for two decades.

 

In a letter on Tuesday to Mr. Obama, Ms. Johnson Sirleaf wrote that “I am being honest with you when I say that at this rate, we will never break the transmission chain and the virus will overwhelm us.” She urgently requested 1,500 additional beds in new hospitals across the country and urged that the United States military set up and run a 100-bed Ebola hospital in the besieged capital, Monrovia.

 

Infectious disease experts have sharply criticized as inadequate the Obama administration’s response to the Ebola crisis, particularly in Liberia, a country founded by freed American slaves. Global agencies like the World Health Organization and the United Nations have also come under criticism for responding too slowly to the Ebola outbreak.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING: US President Barack Obama to send 3,000 military to fight Ebola in Africa

12:06 AM

 

 

 

 

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-assign-3000-us-military-fight-ebola

US TO ASSIGN 3,000 FROM US MILITARY TO FIGHT EBOLA

 

The Obama administration is ramping up its response to West Africa's Ebola crisis, preparing to assign 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical and logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and to boost the number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.

 

President Barack Obama planned to announce the stepped up effort Tuesday during a visit to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta amid alarm that the outbreak could spread and that the deadly virus could mutate into a more easily transmitted disease.

 

The new U.S. muscle comes after appeals from the region and from aid organizations for a heightened U.S. role in combatting the outbreak blamed for more than 2,200 deaths.

 

Administration officials said Monday that the new initiatives aim to:

 

— Train as many as 500 health care workers a week.

 

— Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region of 100 beds each.

 

— Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts.

 

— Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.

 

— Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on how to handle exposed patients.

[China]

$1 Billion Needed For Ebola Response: WHO

 

GENEVA (AP) — The number of Ebola cases could start doubling every three weeks in West Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that the outbreak will cost nearly $1 billion to contain so it does not turn into a "human catastrophe."

 

Even as President Barack Obama is ordering the deployment of 3,000 U.S. military personnel to help provide aid in the region, Doctors Without Borders said the global response to Ebola has been far short of what is needed.

 

"The response to Ebola continues to fall dangerously behind," Dr. Joanne Liu, president of the medical charity, told a U.N. special briefing on Ebola in Geneva. "The window of opportunity to contain this outbreak is closing. We need more countries to stand up, we need greater deployment, and we need it now."

 

Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general, said Tuesday that "this health crisis we face is unparalleled in modern times."

The numbers are staggering: At least 2,400 deaths have been blamed on the outbreak, which has touched Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal since it was first recognized in March.

 

Half of the nearly 5,000 cases occurred in the last three weeks, and officials said Tuesday that it was not unthinkable that 20,000 could become infected before the outbreak is over.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[twa]

20K is easily in reach, we are on the cusp of a truly major event.

 

Mother nature is a surly ****

[757SeanTaylor21]

I mean what the heck is the world just standing there allowing it to just progress? Send a little help see what happens- send a little more...etc. I believe things could have been much better if we acted accorfingly as soon as it popped up. 50 cases ok let's wait til about 2500 die then we will try to contain it all the while these poor countries is containing it the best the can but you KNOW they can't effectively handle it.

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/23/health/ebola-hospital-opening/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

New Ebola hospital in Liberia overwhelmed by patients

 

 On the day the new Ebola clinic in Liberia opened, ambulances waited outside. Inside the ambulances were desperately ill patients who had come for treatment but instead would be left to lie on the ground as others walked by.

 

The Island Clinic and its 120 Ebola treatment beds opened to fanfare Sunday afternoon, with a ceremony attended by international health officials and Liberian leaders. But the clinic, located on Bushrod Island near Monrovia, the capital, did not appear to be ready for the number of patients that quickly flooded its doors.

 

Some lay motionless on the floors of the ambulances outside the center, too weak to get out. They had traveled for hours after being turned away from other hospitals in the area. No one from inside the hospital arrived to offer assistance.

[Special K]

CDC estimates worst cast scenario of 1.4 million Ebola cases by January if things stay status quo.  In addition to the potential that this virus could become ENDEMIC in western Africa. 

 

It's surreal to watch the disconnect between the bleak CDC updates that are sent out each day and the pathetic African union and world response to this.  It's especially unbelievable that the WHO and the UN, with all the people they have on the ground in that area, with all the knowledge they have about the political climate and medical infrastructure of these west African nations, very far into this outbreak, were still like, "yeah, Liberia?  Guinea? Sierra Leone, they're totally capable of handling this."  

 

To give just an idea of the level of dysfunction over there:  just a few days ago the Aids Healthcare Foundation (a global health organization) just advised the African Union to develop an "urgent Ebola response plan."  That the African Union has to continue to be told, in September---MONTHS into history's biggest Ebola outbreak, that they really should get working on a plan doesn't give me much hope that we aren't going to end up seeing some of these dire projections come to fruition in coming months.

 

It's also pathetic that 3,000 of our troops are being placed at risk, getting sent into that region to build medical infrastructure to handle the overwhelming caseload because the international health organizations whose primary purpose is to combat these types of outbreaks can't get their **** together even after months and months of warning.  

 

Western Africa definitely isn't an easy area to work in, but this never should have gotten this bad and it's only going to get way worse, particularly since the "official" number of Ebola cases reported is just the tip of the iceburg of the actual number of true cases out there. 

 

Here's to hoping there's success in the development of an Ebola vaccine in the near future.

[daveakl]

Reading first hand accounts of what people on the ground are seeing is so sad and heartbreaking.

CNN or BBC (can't remember which) had an interview with one of the workers who goes into homes where people are sick or dead to remove them. He talked about opening a door and seeing a mother dead on the ground with her 6 month old licking/sucking at her body trying to latch on for milk.

It's unbelievable that this crisis could grow to 1.4 million cases with a now 70% death rate.

[zoony]

I just watched the new Frontline mini documentary on the outbreak. You really saw the human element in all this... A sick mother and father being taken away from their 4 children, the father fine and talking to the camera. A few days later he is dead in the makeshift camp

Other villagers running and hiding because they are sure that Ebola is made up and the doctors just want to steal their blood

Heartbreaking

[Special K]

I'm sure you saw in the news the 8 humanitarian aid workers/Ebola educators who were hacked to death because of villigers' fear these health workers would take them away from their families, put them in "Ebola camps" and kill them.  The stigma of being infected, the fear of the disease, the workers and the hospitals has caused a massive underreporting of the issue.  The countries this outbreak started in didn't have the infrastructure to contain this and the lack of quick and even remotely effective response from the WHO and UN is just unbelievable.  

 

How to get this under control now with all the complicated factors involved, particularly the lack of medical infrastructure and staffing is hard to even wrap your mind around.  

 

Another sad thing that isn't discussed much is that with all the hospitals and clinics full of Ebola patients, people with preventable diseases, particularly children with fairly easily treatable diseases don't even stand a chance at getting seen by medical staff for vaccinations or basic medication.  So vulnerable populations, particularly children, are getting hit hard.  

[twa]

WHO and the UN much prefer conferences and waiting for it to burn itself out

[zoony]

I'm sure you saw in the news the 8 humanitarian aid workers/Ebola educators who were hacked to death because of villigers' fear these health workers would take them away from their families, put them in "Ebola camps" and kill them. The stigma of being infected, the fear of the disease, the workers and the hospitals has caused a massive underreporting of the issue. The countries this outbreak started in didn't have the infrastructure to contain this and the lack of quick and even remotely effective response from the WHO and UN is just unbelievable.

How to get this under control now with all the complicated factors involved, particularly the lack of medical infrastructure and staffing is hard to even wrap your mind around.

Another sad thing that isn't discussed much is that with all the hospitals and clinics full of Ebola patients, people with preventable diseases, particularly children with fairly easily treatable diseases don't even stand a chance at getting seen by medical staff for vaccinations or basic medication. So vulnerable populations, particularly children, are getting hit hard.

Also, I wonder how many people with a simple flu or cold are getting placed in these Ebola camps

I mean, the symptoms area cough, fever, and muscle ache. There are probably 15 times in my life I would have been put in an Ebola camp

[Larry]

Also, I wonder how many people with a simple flu or cold are getting placed in these Ebola camps

I mean, the symptoms area cough, fever, and muscle ache. There are probably 15 times in my life I would have been put in an Ebola camp

Don't know if there's a test that's available (in those places, at reasonable time/cost).

[zoony]

The documentary was sketchy on details but it appeared to be nothing but a checklist

They also showed these 7 year old kids arriving with the virus and thrown into a quarantine cell with no contact where they are essentially left to die (I'm not blaming the health workers) alone and terrified. They're taken out in a body bag sometimes 24 hours later

As a father of two kids in that age range, that hits very close

[mcsluggo]

The documentary was sketchy on details but it appeared to be nothing but a checklist

They also showed these 7 year old kids arriving with the virus and thrown into a quarantine cell with no contact where they are essentially left to die (I'm not blaming the health workers) alone and terrified. They're taken out in a body bag sometimes 24 hours later

As a father of two kids in that age range, that hits very close

 

hits VERY close.

 

I can't even begin to conceive of the emotions... that is basically a "Sophies Choice" moment.

[visionary]

http://allafrica.com/stories/201409240829.html

Liberia: Dead Ebola Patients Resurrect?

 

Two Ebola patients, who died of the virus in separate communities in Nimba County have reportedly resurrected in the county. The victims, both females, believed to be in their 60s and 40s respectively, died of the Ebola virus recently in Hope Village Community and the Catholic Community in Ganta, Nimba.

 

But to the amazement of residents and onlookers on Monday, the deceased reportedly regained life in total disbelief. The NewDawn Nimba County correspondent said the late Dorris Quoi of Hope Village Community and the second victim only identified as Ma Kebeh, said to be in her late 60s, were about to be taken for burial when they resurrected.

 

Ma Kebeh had reportedly been in door for two nights without food and medication before her alleged death. Nimba County has had bazaar news of Ebola cases with a native doctor from the county, who claimed that he could cure infected victims, dying of the virus himself last week.

 

News of the resurrection of the two victims has reportedly created panic in residents of Hope Village Community and Ganta at large, with some citizens describing Dorris Quoi as a ghost, who shouldn't live among them. Since the Ebola outbreak in Nimba County, this is the first incident of dead victims resurrecting.

[China]

So Ebola is spawning the zombie apocolypse?  Brilliant!

[Special K]

For anyone interested, here is the CDC's MMWR published this week that gives the methodology behind the dire projections as well as what exactly is needed to stop the outbreak.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6303a1.htm?s_cid=su6303a1_w

 

Here is the quick summary of that report if you just want the highlights and not the EbolaResponse model tool data details.  Also included are some Q & A's.

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/qa-mmwr-estimating-future-cases.html