Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[jimmy olsen]

1700 beds is really good, but who is going to staffing them? When are the beds going to get there? Will the staff be capable with just a week of training? Poorly trained staff will just spread the disease.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-surge-obama-pledge-millions-keep-country-safe-n204106

The Defense Department will divert $500 million for the effort, which will include building 17 treatment centers with 100 beds apiece, dedicating 10,000 sets of personal protective equipment and distributing supplies such as disinfectant and hand sanitizer to help 400,000 families protect themselves and care for sick family members.

...
The U.S. Africa Command will train as many as 500 new health care workers a week for six months and longer if needed. WHO and aid groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders) have said medical staff are by far the greatest need.

[CountDeMoney]

Did Congress shitcan the Mercy and Comfort yet?  You want to provide medical services in that shithole, do it offshore.

[grumbler]

Did Congress shitcan the Mercy and Comfort yet?  You want to provide medical services in that shithole, do it offshore.

Agreed.  Comfort is the Atlantic Fleet hospital ship; get it over there.

[jimmy olsen]

It doesn't seem like anyone is able to keep track of  concrete numbers anymore and they're just using estimates. That's a bad sign.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/who-orders-global-response-ebola-death-toll-climbs-2-500-n204241

The Ebola virus outbreak is "unparalleled in modern times," the World Health Organization said Tuesday, announcing a "global response coalition" as the death toll in West Africa climbed towards 2,500 with 5,000 others infected.

Oh, and if the numbers are in the tens of thousands there will be no containment. You've already lost.

Aylward said a faster response was needed to keep the numbers infected within the "tens of thousands."

Meanwhile MSF continues to sound the alarm.


http://www.msf.org/article/msf-presidents-remarks-un-special-briefing-ebola

MSF President's remarks to the UN Special Briefing on Ebola
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16 September 2014

P.K. Lee/MSF

United Nations Member States Briefing on the Ebola outbreak and Response in West Africa, Geneva, 16 September 2014

Remarks by Dr. Joanne Liu, International President, Médecins Sans Frontières

Ms. Under Secretary General, Mr. Special Coordinator, Mr. Assistant Director General, Distinguished Delegates, ladies and gentlemen.

Two weeks ago, I made an urgent appeal to member states of the United Nations in New York for your help in stemming the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Many other organisations, such as the CDC, the WHO, and the UN, have also described the unfolding catastrophe.

Yet, since then, only a few countries have promised to deploy more hands-on capacity to the affected countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, China, France and Cuba, or the European Union. We understand President Obama will announce later today plans to deploy military and medical assistance to West Africa. If this is true – but we have no real details yet on what this deployment entails, and how fast it will be – then it shows that the US is willing to lead by example. Other countries need to follow.

Today, the response to Ebola continues to fall dangerously behind, and I am forced to reiterate the appeal I made two weeks ago:

We need you on the ground. 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.  This robust response must be coordinated, organized and executed under clear chain of command.

Today, in Monrovia, sick people are banging on the doors of MSF Ebola care centres, because they do not want to infect their families and they are desperate for a safe place in which to be isolated.

Tragically, our teams must turn them away.  We simply do not have enough capacity for them. Highly infectious people are forced to return home, only to infect others and continue the spread of this deadly virus.  All for a lack of international response.

As of today, MSF has sent more than 420 tonnes of supplies to the affected countries. We have 2,000 staff on the ground. We manage more than 530 beds in five different Ebola care centres. Yet we are overwhelmed.  We are honestly at a loss as to how a single, private NGO is providing the bulk of isolation units and beds.

We are unable to predict how the epidemic will spread. We are dealing largely with the unknown. But we do know that the number of recorded Ebola cases represents only a fraction of the real number of people infected.  We do know that transmission rates are at unprecedented levels. We do know that communities are being decimated. And, with certainty, we know that the ground response remains totally, and lethally, inadequate.

With every passing week, the epidemic grows exponentially. With every passing week, the response becomes all the more complicated.

More countries must deploy their civil defence and military assets, and medical teams, to contain the epidemic. Large numbers of trained staff are needed to tend to patients in basic and efficient isolation wards and tent hospitals, which can be established quickly on open ground in a comparatively straight forward logistical operation.

The fight against this outbreak is more than just about controlling the virus.  While thousands have died of Ebola, many more are dying from easily treatable conditions and diseases because health centres no longer function. Health structures need support to start working again and reduce death rates and suffering caused by other untreated ailments.

Meanwhile, efforts towards producing an effective vaccine must continue, in order to cut the chain of transmission. But it must be a vaccine of proven safety and efficiency and of wide availability.  Until that day comes, we must act as if no vaccine exists.

How the world deals with this unprecedented epidemic will be recorded in history books.  This is a regional crisis with economic, social and security implications that reach far beyond the borders of the affected countries.

States have a political and humanitarian responsibility to halt this mounting disaster

It can only be done by massively deploying assets to the field, and battling the epidemic at its roots.

The first pledges have been made, now more countries must urgently also mobilise. The clock is ticking.

[derspiess]

Ick.  Are we really going to send 3,000 lucky armed services personnel over there?  Must be an awesome feeling getting those orders.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/africa/obama-to-announce-expanded-effort-against-ebola.html?_r=1

Send supplies, money, whatever.  Just not people.

[jimmy olsen]

People are what's needed most though. Not that it will help much. It's too late.

[Valmy]

Send supplies, money, whatever.  Just not people.

If Liberia had a trained staff ready to use that gear then I would agree.  Unfortunately anything we send needs to have people trained to use it or it will be wasted.

[Berkut]

Yeah, people are going to have to be part of the solution.

The weird thing about stuff like this is that the amount of money needed, while considerable, really isn't that much from a global/national scale. Compared to the amounts that western countries spend on all kinds of stupid shit, the amount needed to handle a crisis like this is not really that significant.

I saw an ad in the elevator today crowing about how Canada was sending $2.5M in aid. Seriously? Are you kidding me?

[CountDeMoney]

Send them some MRAPs.

[Berkut]

No shit, we can send them a bunch of MRAPS.

[Tamas]

Took him long enough.  The UN should have been mobilizing a large response months ago.  I mean geez what good are they if they cannot facilitate a response to a disease?

Embezzling all that sweet money takes serious effort, yo.

[derspiess]

People are what's needed most though. Not that it will help much. It's too late.

Okay, then allow volunteers to go.  Just don't order servicemen & wimmenz over there FFS.

[The Brain]

People are what's needed most though. Not that it will help much. It's too late.

Okay, then allow volunteers to go.  Just don't order servicemen & wimmenz over there FFS.

Why not?

[Admiral Yi]

Why not?

Because we have a lot invested in their training and it's not what they signed up for.

Anyone else who wants to order their military to the area should feel free to do so however.

[Jacob]

Because we have a lot invested in their training and it's not what they signed up for.

Anyone else who wants to order their military to the area should feel free to do so however.

Presumably if the US military is being ordered into the area, it will be Americans who order them there?

Presumably, also, the kind of people being sent will be the kind of people who can make a significant difference and who have the training and resource to keep themselves safe?