CNN: 2 Ebola patients returning to U.S.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/01/ebola-vaccine-set-trial-west-africa-150123201616895.html

Ebola vaccine set for trial in West Africa

 

The first batch of an experimental Ebola vaccine has been dispatched to West Africa where it will be used in large-scale trials in coming weeks.

 

Healthcare workers helping to care for Ebola patients will be among the first to get the vaccine when trials start. Researchers hope to eventually enroll up to 30,000 people in the trial.

 

The vaccine, co-developed by the National Institutes of Health in the United States and Okairos, a biotechnology firm acquired by UK drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in 2013, is now being tested in safety trials in Britain, the US, Switzerland and Mali.

 

The vaccine uses a type of chimpanzee cold virus to deliver safe genetic material from the Zaire strain of Ebola, the strain responsible for the unprecedented West African epidemic.

 

Data show the vaccine is safe in people, including in a West African population and in a range of dose levels, GSK said.

 

News of the first shipment of the vaccine coincided on Friday with the Liberian deputy health minister's announcement that the country only has five remaining confirmed cases of the disease.

 

"We have five confirmed Ebola cases in Liberia as of today," said Tolbert Nyenswah, who heads the country's Ebola taskforce.

"It means that we are going down to zero, if everything goes well, if other people don't get sick in other places."

[twa]

almost unbelievable

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-story-dallas-nurse-got-232919860.html

 

Now, in a lawsuit filed Monday in Dallas, Pham alleges that the video was an "ambush" and that her Ebola infection was a direct result of the "gross negligence" of her employer, Texas Health Resources. 

Pham, the suit alleges, was "a symbol of corporate neglect — a casualty of a hospital system's failure to prepare for a known and impending medical crisis."

While the hospital has had spokespeople telling its version of events for months, the lawsuit offers the first look at how the unthinkable happened, from the perspective of the first person to contract Ebola on US soil. Texas Health Resources is expected to contest this account.

'She did not volunteer'

On Aug. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held its first conference call to help clinicians prepare for the possibility that Ebola would show up in their hospitals. By then, the Ebola outbreak in western Africa was already historic in scale, and two Americans had been sent to the US for treatment.

By September, the lawsuit alleges, "the CDC and the American Hospital Association warned [Texas Health Resources] that Ebola was an imminent threat and that healthcare provider training and policies should be adopted... as well as safe protocols for personal protective equipment to protect health care workers."

The first time Thomas Eric Duncan showed up at the Texas Health Dallas Presbyterian Hospital in late September, he was sent home. Days later, when his condition had worsened and Ebola was suspected, he was admitted to the ICU. "Nina was told the patient would be hers," the lawsuit alleges. 

From the suit:

Nina was shocked. She had never been trained to handled infectious diseases, never been told anything about Ebola, how to treat Ebola, or how to protect herself as a nurse treating an Ebola patient. The hospital had never given her any ... training or guidance about Ebola. All Nina knew about Ebola is what she had heard on television.

According to the petition filed with the court, when Pham "asked her manager what she should do to protect herself," one of her superiors "went to the internet, searched Google, printed off information regarding what Nina was supposed to do, and handed Nina the printed paper."

Given that sequence of events, the suit alleges, it's clear "she did not volunteer to be his nurse." Still, she treated him when asked.

'More like a third world country'

 

added

 

Soon after, the lawsuit alleges, something strange happened. Pham was called into a meeting with an occupational health manager from the hospital and a CDC representative. She "was told that the [personal protective equipment] she wore was safe and that she was 'no risk' of having contracted Ebola," according to the lawsuit. (Asked to verify what was said at this meeting, a CDC spokesperson told us the agency "does not comment on pending lawsuits.")

[Dont Taze Me Bro]

Since she is healthy again and this will not impact her continuing to work, will this get tossed out?  Also, as a nurse/healthcare worker, are there any guidelines/by-laws/etc. that would prevent her from taking legal action for contracting a disease while administering care?

 

I'm not saying the hospital is not at fault, but she survived, does she deserve any more than back pay for time missed due to the disease?  I'm just asking, not trying to stir up any debates or ruffle any feathers.  

 

Also, she made a choice to provide care to the man, yes, it's her job, but knowing she wasn't trained properly and a supervisor "google'd" how to treat ebola patients, and her acceptance and not refusal to be the treating nurse have to come into play?

 

I know its her job, but honestly, being fired would be my least concern if my employer told me I was going to have to care for an ebola patient with zero training.  I'd refuse, because 1]  I wasn't trained to provide that type of care nor protect myself and 2]  my boss had to google how to care for this deadly disease.

[twa]

there are complications from both the disease and treatment....all is not well

 

I was kinda stunned she wore scrubs home after exposure,...amateur hour

 

 

meanwhile

http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-health-ebola-guinea-exclusive-idINKBN0LY20Y20150302?feedType=RSS&feedName=health&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FINhealth+%28News+%2F+IN+%2F+Health%29

 

(Reuters) - Health officials botched more than 20 Ebola blood tests in January and February which led to the release of at least four positive patients, two of whom later died, Guinea's anti-Ebola coordinator and other health officials told Reuters.

Five health officials and experts familiar with the incidents said the mistakes occurred at two different treatment centers and resulted in as many as 52 botched tests, exposing many others to the virus and revealing weaknesses in Guinea's response to the crisis.

[Special K]

She absolutely should sue that stupid hospital for gross negligence.  They had been told for MONTHS that they needed to prepare for this and they clearly did nothing.

 

She should also be sued for gross stupidity for wearing her scrubs home.  Good LORD.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/CharlieKayeCBS

BREAKING. @NIH says American healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola in Sierra Leone heading for Atlanta hospital.
4:52 PM

[Larry]

Part of me wonders Why these people are being shipped back here. 

 

Is our ability to treat them here, that much better than where they already are? 

 

(I'm afraid that the answer to that question is "Yes, a whole lot better".) 

[twa]

there is a promise to bring any volunteer back for treatment, and yes our ability is greater here

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/health/

Breaking News: Unspecified number of Americans potentially exposed to Ebola in Sierra Leone

[Special K]

Clinical status of the patient currently being treated at NIH has changed from "serious" to "critical."

 

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/mar2015/nih-16.htm

[Duckus]

This thread is pretty hilarious to revisit. 

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING 45-day Ebola 'health emergency' declared in five Guinea regions, president says
5:40 PM

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/world/africa/idle-ebola-clinics-in-liberia-are-seen-as-misstep-in-us-relief-effort.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=0

Idle Ebola Clinics in Liberia Are Seen as Misstep in U.S. Relief Effort

 

As bodies littered the streets and the sick lay dying in front of overwhelmed clinics last year, President Obama ordered the largest American intervention ever in a global health crisis, hoping to stem the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history.

 

But after spending hundreds of millions of dollars and deploying nearly 3,000 troops to build Ebola treatment centers, the United States ended up creating facilities that have largely sat empty: Only 28 Ebola patients have been treated at the 11 treatment units built by the United States military, American officials now say.

 

Nine centers have never had a single Ebola patient.

 

“My task was to convince the international organizations, ‘You don’t need any more E.T.U.s,’ ” said Dr. Hans Rosling, a Swedish public health expert who advised Liberia’s health ministry, referring to Ebola treatment units.

 

“I warned them, ‘The only thing you’ll show is an empty E.T.U.,’ ” he added. “ ‘Don’t do it.’ ”

 

The American response, it turns out, was outpaced by the fast-moving and unpredictable disease.

 

Facing criticism that his reaction to the devastating epidemic had been slow and inadequate, Mr. Obama announced his signature plan in mid-September, focusing on Liberia, America’s historical ally.

 

But even before the first treatment center built by the American military opened there, the number of Ebola cases in Liberia had fallen drastically, casting doubt on the American strategy of building facilities that took months to complete.

 

The emphasis on constructing treatment centers — so widely championed last year — ended up having much less impact than the inexpensive, nimble measures taken by residents to halt the outbreak, many officials say.

 

Liberia could be declared free of Ebola as early as next month. But with health officials warning that it is only a matter of time before another outbreak erupts in this region, they are drawing important lessons from the successes and shortcomings of the response by international and West African leaders.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/world/africa/signs-ebola-spreads-in-sex-prompt-a-cdc-warning.html?smid=pl-share

Signs Ebola Spreads in Sex Prompt a C.D.C. Warning

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidelines on Ebola transmission on Sunday night, urging survivors to abstain from all forms of sex or use condoms every time “until more information becomes available,” rather than three months as previously recommended.

 

The World Health Organization and Liberia have issued similar recommendations in recent weeks. They were acting on evidence suggesting that a Liberian man who recovered from Ebola might have transmitted the virus to his female partner many months later.

 

Ebola genetic material was found in a semen sample the man provided 175 days after he developed symptoms, 74 days longer than ever before found in a survivor. Scientists in Liberia have compared the genetic sequence of the virus found in the woman, Ruth Tugbah, 44, to partial sequences obtained from the virus in her boyfriend’s semen and in blood samples taken months ago from his potential contacts with Ebola, and found that they matched at several key points.

 

Thus far, the information is consistent with sexual transmission, scientists said, but not conclusive, and the study is continuing. Researchers at the C.D.C. were also trying to establish whether the sample the man provided contained infectious virus, rather than only harmless genetic material or RNA.

 

Experts said they had expected sexual transmission of Ebola to be rare. It has not yet been proved, but “cannot be ruled out,” the C.D.C. guidance said. Marburg, a similar virus, is thought to have been transmitted sexually. The World Health Organization, the C.D.C. and the Sierra Leone health ministry are planning a study of survivors intended to help establish the range of time that various body fluids, such as semen, urine and breast milk, tend to contain Ebola after it has been cleared from the blood. That time frame has varied in the small number of survivors previously studied.

[China]

So they say that the estimated number of cases will be 550,000 in January 2015 and doubles every 20 days.

 

If we assume a doubling rate of 1 month and that it is maintained, then the entire world population will become infected within 14 months.

 

 

Yeah, I suppose if you applied that model to the world and excluded other factors.

 

Here's to hoping our troops and everyone else working on infrastructure can build the number of Ebola Treatment Units necessary to treat the 70% of Ebola cases needed to stop the outbreak...

 

Wait, shouldn't we be halfway to the entire world being infected?  You mean the containment measures work?  Nonsense, I was assured that we were all going to die.  What am I going to do now that I've sold all my stuff and spent nearly all my money because I was going to be dead in another six months anyway?

[twa]

Wait, shouldn't we be halfway to the entire world being infected?  You mean the containment measures work?  Nonsense, I was assured that we were all going to die.  What am I going to do now that I've sold all my stuff and spent nearly all my money because I was going to be dead in another six months anyway?

 

AGW will get ya anyway.

or prions

or bird flu

maybe a drunk illegal immigrant? 

 

no wait ....a Sovereign Citizen

[mistertim]

Wait, shouldn't we be halfway to the entire world being infected?  You mean the containment measures work?  Nonsense, I was assured that we were all going to die.  What am I going to do now that I've sold all my stuff and spent nearly all my money because I was going to be dead in another six months anyway?

I was assured by Breitbart that Obama wanted Ebola in the USA and was actively involved in getting it here to kill people. I have to say, he sucks at it. He just can't get anything right.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-deaths-pass-11-000-mark-223707192.html;_ylt=AwrC1C7ApUpVW00ATxXQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByOHZyb21tBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

Ebola deaths pass 11,000 mark: WHO

 

The number of deaths from the Ebola epidemic now exceeds 11,000, figures from the World Health Organization showed on Wednesday.

 

In the three countries worst affected -- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- 26,593 people were infected, and 11,005 had died, the WHO said.

The worst ever outbreak of Ebola began in southern Guinea in December 2013 before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 

Liberia has recorded the most deaths with 4,716, while 3,903 have died in Sierra Leone and 2,386 have died in Guinea.

 

Although the number of cases has topped 11,000, the WHO is due to declare on May 9 that the epidemic is over in Liberia, unless there are any new cases in the country before then.

 

The number of new infections are also dwindling in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Only nine new cases were recorded in each country last week, the lowest figures for almost a year.

[twa]

amazing what ya find when ya look 

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d98b3e7331194263bd7a4dd35ff1170a/ebola-found-doctors-eye-months-after-virus-left-blood

For the first time, Ebola has been discovered inside the eyes of a patient months after the virus was gone from his blood.

Ebola has infected more than 26,000 people since December 2013 in West Africa. Some survivors have reported eye problems but how often they occur isn't known. The virus also is thought to be able to persist in semen for several months.

The new report concerns Dr. Ian Crozier, a 43-year-old American physician diagnosed with Ebola in September while working with the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone.

He was treated at Emory University Hospital's special Ebola unit in Atlanta and released in October when Ebola was no longer detected in his blood. Two months later, he developed an inflammation and very high blood pressure in one eye, which causes swelling and potentially serious vision problems.

He returned to Emory, where ophthalmologist Dr. Steven Yeh drained some of the fluid and had it tested for Ebola. It contained the virus but tears and tissue around the outside of his eye did not.

[No Excuses]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/31/ebola-vaccine-trial-proves-100-successful-in-guinea

 

 

Ebola vaccine trial proves 100% successful in Guinea

 

A vaccine against Ebola has been shown to be 100% successful in trials conducted during the outbreak in Guinea and is likely to bring the west African epidemic to an end, experts say.

The results of the trials involving 4,000 people are remarkable because of the unprecedented speed with which the development of the vaccine and the testing were carried out.

Scientists, doctors, donors and drug companies collaborated to race the vaccine through a process that usually takes more than a decade in just 12 months.

“Having seen the devastating effects of Ebola on communities and even whole countries with my own eyes, I am very encouraged by today’s news,” said Børge Brende, the foreign minister of Norway, which helped fund the trial.

[Elessar78]

Enjoy your 100% autism with that vaccine.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/british-ebola-nurse-pauline-cafferkey-critically-ill-002413262.html

British Ebola nurse now 'critically ill': hospital

 

A British nurse who was successfully treated in January after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone is now "critically ill" due to a resurgence of the virus, the hospital treating her said Wednesday.

 

It is thought that Pauline Cafferkey, 39, could be only the second recorded case of "reactivated" Ebola after American doctor Ian Crozier.

 

Just two weeks ago, Cafferkey was at Downing Street meeting Prime Minister David Cameron's wife Samantha and receiving a bravery award.

She reportedly visited a primary school the day before being readmitted to hospital on October 6.

 

"We are sad to announce that Pauline Cafferkey's condition has deteriorated and she is now critically ill. Pauline is being treated for Ebola in the high-level isolation unit at the Royal Free," the London hospital said in a statement.

 

Cafferkey was first diagnosed with Ebola in December after returning to the Scottish city of Glasgow from Sierra Leone.

 

She then spent almost a month in the isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital and was treated with an experimental anti-viral drug and blood from Ebola survivors before being discharged.

 

But last week, she fell ill again and was treated in Glasgow before being flown by military aircraft back to the Royal Free Hospital in London.

[daveakl]

Hmmmmmm That can't be good.

[twa]

was reading the other day about how ebola remains in semen,vaginal,ocular and spinal fluids after becoming asymptomatic.

 

it explains how it comes and goes to a degree.

[daveakl]

Great video explaining how it comes and goes.

http://tiny.cc/xnjp4x