Ebola virus news

[Lion Heart 15,041]

Hospitals across the country are isolating and testing potential Ebola patients, erring on the side of caution as the largest Ebola outbreak to date rages in West Africa.

 

A 46-year-old Columbus, Ohio, woman who recently traveled to one of the three countries affected by the outbreak is being held in isolation at a local hospital, the Columbus health department said today. She was hospitalized several days ago but is “doing well†as she awaits Ebola test results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are expected today or Wednesday, the health department said.

 

The CDC last week sent a health alert to hospitals across the country urging them to ask patients about their travel history to help identify potential Ebola cases. The CDC said has tested blood samples from six people with possible Ebola symptoms who had recently traveled to West Africa.

Emergency room physicians at Johns Hopkins Medicine thought one of their patients had Ebola Friday, but it turned out to be a false alarm, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC News.

 

The patient was ultimately diagnosed with malaria, but Dr. Trish Perl, a senior epidemiologist at the hospital in Baltimore, wrote in a memo to her staff that those involved did a "remarkable job" identifying and isolating the patient as well as making sure a minimal number of people were at risk for contracting the virus.

 

"This is a 'wake up' call for all of us to recognize that we are vulnerable because of the patients we serve and our location," Perl wrote. Johns Hopkins Medicine said it could not provide more information because of patient confidentiality and federal privacy laws.

 

"Our staff trains frequently to ensure that the hospital is prepared for all types of scenarios," the hospital said in a statement to ABC News. "If a patient were to have suspected Ebola virus, the patient would be placed in isolation, staff would begin taking standard precautions, and the patient would be evaluated by our infectious disease specialists."

 

On Monday, Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City announced that it was treating a potential Ebola patient who recently traveled to West Africa and was experiencing a high fever and gastrointestinal symptoms.

“Many things cause fever and gastrointestinal symptoms,†ABC News chief health and medical editor Dr. Richard Besser said shortly after Mount Sinai’s announcement on Monday. “The steps they are taking are wise given the travel history, but nothing about the symptoms is specific to Ebola.â€

 

Doctors isolated the patient and sent blood samples to the CDC for testing, but Mount Sinai officials said at a news conference Monday night that the patient was "unlikely" to have the deadly virus. The death toll of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone climbed to 887, the World Health Organization said Monday. 1,603 people have been infected, in all.

Source: https://gma.yahoo.com/ebola-false-alarm-johns-hopkins-162006713.html

Liberia declares states of emergency as Ebola death toll reaches 932

Liberia's president declared a state of emergency on Wednesday to combat the ongoing outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, as the country began implementing quarantine checkpoints.

The country’s president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said that the scale of the Ebola outbreak represents a threat to Liberia’s security.

"The government and people of Liberia require extraordinary measures for the very survival of our state and for the protection of the lives of our people," she said via statement. "I...hereby declare a State of Emergency throughout the Republic of Liberia effective as of Aug. 6, 2014 for a period of 90 days."

The World Health Organization announced that 932 people have died from the recent Ebola outbreak, as the organization begins to consider whether experimental d--gs should be deployed to West Africa to help contain the situation. The WHO is to decide whether it will declare an international public health emergency in order to deal with the outbreak in the coming days.

According to Reuters, the WHO said Wednesday that 45 more people died as a result of the virus between August 2-4, raising the death toll closer to 1,000 in what is being billed as the world's worst Ebola outbreak.

The organization estimates that approximately 1,711 cases have been detected so far. Liberia was hit the hardest over the past few days, with 27 of the 45 newly tabulated deaths occurring there. Sierra Leone was home to 13 of the deaths, and Guinea had five new fatalities.

While the outbreak has primarily affected these three countries, the WHO said the number of suspected Ebola cases in Nigeria rose to nine after five more were discovered. A Nigerian nurse who was assisting with the treatment of Ebola patients in the country has reportedly passed away from the disease, while a Saudi Arabian man believed to have contracted Ebola during a trip to Sierra Leone also died Wednesday morning.

Additionally, a key hospital in Liberia – St. Joseph’s Catholic – was shut down after a Spanish priest and six others were diagnosed with the highly contagious virus. Spain is expected to transfer the priest to his native country.

http://rt.com/news/178556-ebola-outbreak-health-emergency/

Ebola death toll rises to 887

The doctor who treated a man who flew to Nigeria and died of Ebola now has contracted the disease, authorities said Monday, presenting a dire challenge to Africa's most populous nation as the regional toll for the outbreak grew to 887 dead.

As Nigerian health authorities rushed to quarantine others who had been exposed, a special plane left Liberia to evacuate the second American missionary who fell ill with Ebola. Nancy Writebol, 59, is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday, where she will be treated at a special isolation ward.

The second confirmed case in Nigeria is a doctor who treated Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria from Liberia, said Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Three others who also treated Sawyer now show symptoms of Ebola and their test results are pending, he said. Authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa's largest city of 21 million people.

"This cluster of cases in Lagos, Nigeria is very concerning," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, which is dispatching 50 experienced disease control specialists to West Africa.

"It shows what happens if meticulous infection control, contact tracing, and proper isolation of patients with suspected Ebola is not done. Stopping the spread in Lagos will be difficult but it can be done," he said.

The World Health Organization announced Monday that the death toll has increased from 729 to 887 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/liberia-orders-cremation-ebola-victims-24830289

 

Sierra Leone declares state of emergency

Sierra Leone, hard hit by the worst-ever Ebola outbreak, has declared a state of emergency and is mobilizing police and the military to quarantine the epicenters of the disease. President Ernest Bai Koroma said in a statement last night that the crisis, which has been blamed for [729] deaths in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, is an “extraordinary†challenge that requires “extraordinary measures.â€

 

Among the steps announced:

Sealing off towns and homes where the disease is identified until they are cleared by medical teams.

Restricting public meetings and gatherings.

“Active surveillance and house-to-house searches†designed to trace Ebola victims and people who might have been exposed.

New protocols for screening both arriving and departing passengers at the country’s main airport.

Police and troops will be used to make sure that people cooperate with the medical teams. All three of the countries have reportedly had a problem with villagers resisting or rejecting medical attention, in some cases because they fear that their presence is a cause of the disease.

 

Koroma said he would cancel a planned visit to Washington this week for a U.S.-Africa summit.

His announcement, in a speech to the nation, followed a similar declaration by the president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.  In a speech Sunday, she announced the closure of all but three of the country’s land border crossings, closed schools, restricted public gatherings and quarantined communities heavily affected by the Ebola outbreak in the West African nation.

 

The countries hardest hit are ill-equipped to battle the outbreak, with limited medical facilities that have become even more depleted as medical personnel have themselves contracted the disease.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported, Liberian health officials said an isolation unit for Ebola victims in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, was overrun with cases and health workers were being forced to treat up to 20 new patients in their homes.

 

“The staff here are overwhelmed,†Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant minister of health, told Reuters. “This is a humanitarian crisis in Liberia.â€

The U.S. Peace Corps said on Wednesday it was temporarily withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and that two of its volunteers had been isolated and were under observation after coming in contact with a person who later died of the Ebola virus.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/31/sierra-leone-declares-state-of-emergency-in-ebola-crisis/

Sierra Leone leading doctor dies from virus

The doctor leading Sierra Leone's fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record died from the virus on Tuesday, the country's chief medical officer said.

The death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients, follows those of dozens of local health workers and the infection of two American medics in neighboring Liberia, highlighting the dangers faced by staff trying to halt the disease's spread across West Africa.

Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation.

The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it.

The 39-year-old Khan, hailed as a "national hero" by the Health Ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.

He died less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and shortly before President Ernest Bai Koroma arrived to visit his treatment center in the northeastern town of Kailahun.

"It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral hemorrhagic fevers," said the chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/30/sierra-leone-top-ebola-doctor-dies-from-virus/

Top Ebola Doctor contacts the virus.

 

In the past several months, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan has been a leader in the fight against the deadliest and largest Ebola outbreak in history. Khan, 39, has treated over 100 Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. He's a "national hero," the country's health minister said Tuesday.

Now the doctor has caught the deadly virus himself, Reuters reports. Khan is being treated at an isolation ward in Kailahun, run by Doctors Without Borders, the Sierra Leone government said in a statement.

"He is a very respected medical professional in the country," says Meredith Dyson, a health worker with Catholic Relief Services in Freetown, Sierra Leone. "Everybody here in Sierra Leone is praying for him right now."

Since the outbreak started in March, more than 1,000 people have been infected in three countries; 604 people have died, the World Health Organization said Saturday. Sierra Leone has reported 442 cases and 206 deaths.

Khan had worked for years treating people for another viral disease, called Lassa fever, which causes symptoms similar to Ebola. When cases of Ebola started to emerge in Sierra Leone, Khan immediately turned his attention to the outbreak and started treating patients at a hospital in Kenema.

On Sunday, three nurses at that hospital died of Ebola, Dyson says. "The rest of the nurses went on strike on Monday because they were concerned about the conditions in the hospital," she says. "They felt that they weren't getting the equipment they need to protect themselves from the virus."

Ebola Is A Deadly Virus  But Doctors Say It Can Be Beaten

Eerie protective suits and shiny body bags have fueled rumors about the origins of Ebola. Here, a burial team removes the body of a person suspected to have died from the virus in the village of Pendembu, Sierra Leone.

"That hospital has had huge problems," says NPR reporter Jason Beaubien, who was in Sierra Leone last week covering the outbreak there. "At least eight nurses got infected with Ebola just over a week ago. That indicates severe problems with infection control."

The problem has been so severe that Doctors Without Borders sent a team to the hospital this week to assess the situation.

The fact that health care workers are contracting Ebola could be a major setback in the fight against this outbreak  especially when the patient is as prominent as Khan. "This is a huge blow," says Beaubien. "And the fact that it is so public is just going to add to the overall fear and the sense among people there's nothing you can do to keep yourself safe." People who have Ebola symptoms may even be reluctant to go to a hospital, he says. "This will further undermine efforts to get this [outbreak] under control," he adds.

Dyson is more optimistic. She thinks the news about Khan will galvanize efforts to stop the outbreak. "I do think it's going to bring things to a new level of urgency," she says.

Khan knew from the start that treating Ebola patients was risky. "I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life," he told Reuters in June. "Even with the full protective clothing you put on, you are at risk."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/07/23/334467906/a-doctor-leading-the-fight-against-ebola-has-caught-the-virus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmGbjCy5d34

[CHANTEL 2]

Terrible news, Poor Guy

[lego 44,165]

So sad. :cry:

[Essence 244]

Awful

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

Very sad. He is a true hero. These are the people we should admire, not overpaid celebrities.

[Vernier 3,786]

That's sad, but what a brave person :applause:

[Tove Lo 2,481]

My dad won't stop talking about this virus and it makes sense. They aren't sending enough people to work on this stuff, everyone is too worried about war. Well what about a virus that could kill everyone? Basically, symptoms don't show for about 1 or 3 weeks then it starts. That gives a lot of time for someone to travel around.

Anyways, there's no cure and you bleed from all over your body :wtf:

[ryhanna 3,507]

He's so brave. It's terrible that he's caught it, but I really hope he pulls through.

[Luc 4,776]

No. This is so terrible...

hopefully the governments all work together to kill this virus as soon as humanly possible.

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

A second American aid worker has tested positive for the Ebola virus at the same hospital in Liberia where an American doctor became infected while helping to combat an outbreak of the deadly disease, a relief group official said Sunday.

Ken Isaacs, a vice president of Samaritan's Purse, told The Associated Press that Dr. Kent Brantly  the 33-year-old medical director for the group's Ebola care center on the outskirts of the Liberian capital of Monrovia  was stable and in very serious condition.

"We are hopeful and prayerful," Isaacs told AP by telephone from the group headquarters in Boone, North Carolina. He said the doctor quickly recognized the symptoms and sought speedy treatment.

Isaacs identified the second American, Nancy Writebol, as a worker with an allied aid group SIM, or Serving in Mission, which runs the hospital where Samaritan's Purse has an Ebola care center on the grounds. He said she was in stable and serious condition.

"She is showing full symptoms of the disease," Isaacs said. He added that Writebol had been working as a hygienist who decontaminated those entering and leaving the Ebola care area at the hospital.

He said both Americans have since been isolated and are under intensive treatment.

Isaacs, the Christian relief group's vice president of program and government relations, said the fact that health care workers have been infected underscores the severity of the West Africa outbreak that has killed hundreds in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"It's been a shock to everyone on our team to have two of our players get pounded with the disease," said Isaacs, adding health ministries in those poor nations are challenged to respond. "Our team is frankly getting tired."

The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. The World Health Organization said the outbreak is the largest ever recorded, killing more than 670 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since it began earlier this year.

Health workers are at serious risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

Photos of Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.

There is no known cure for Ebola, which begins with symptoms including fever and sore throat and escalates to vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The WHO says the disease is not contagious until a person begins to show symptoms.

Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the U.S. about a week ago, before the doctor started showing any signs of illness, said Melissa Strickland, a spokeswoman for Samaritan's Purse.

"They have absolutely shown no symptoms," she said.

A woman who identified herself as Brantly's mother said the family was declining immediate comment when reached by phone in Indiana late Saturday.

Brantly is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and went to Liberia as part of a two-year fellowship with Samaritan's Purse, shortly after he completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.

"The caliber of a person like that who says, 'I'm going Africa, I'm going to where people need me the most,' it really speaks to you," Robert Earley, president and CEO of JPS Health Network, said Sunday. "It speaks to your heart."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/american-doctor-africa-treatment-ebola-24731640

Edited July 29, 2014 by Morphine Prince

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

CONTAGION BEGINS..........

[MonsterMum 2,532]

Run for the hills!

[Princess Die 1,864]

CONTAGION BEGINS..........

Is that the movie where they cut the b---h's head open?

[inuborg 4,136]

 

[TheOriginalOne 11,604]

I saw this on CCN earlier and the title just read, "2nd American contracts Ebola" and I almost had a heart attack.