Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[jimmy olsen]

Really skeptical about that Guinea news. Why should we believe that the decline is real rather than it being a breakdown in government tracking and or the refusal of citizens to cooperate?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-sierra-leone-quarantine.html?_r=1

Ebola Epidemic Worsening, Sierra Leone Increases Quarantine Restrictions

By ADAM NOSSITERSEPT. 25, 2014

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Acknowledging that the Ebola epidemic sweeping Sierra Leone was worsening, officials here put hundreds of thousands more citizens under quarantine on Thursday, sealing off more than a quarter of the country and warning travelers not to get out of their vehicles in the districts under isolation.

Nearly all of the country's 14 districts are now under either total or partial quarantine, with over one million people affected, as the disease advances into new areas. Infection rates have been rising in the capital, Freetown, a dangerous development because of the city's density.

In an address to citizens late Wednesday night, President Ernest Bai Koroma acknowledged that the new quarantine orders would "definitely pose great difficulties for our people," but he suggested that officials had little choice. Makeni, the largest city in the country's Northern Province, is in one of the newly quarantined districts, and foreign health care workers are particularly worried about a surge in infections there.

In what appeared to be an acknowledgment that official statistics had so far been misleading, the government said the country's plight was "worse than what was being reflected in reports," adding that there was a "desperate need to step up our response."

A Western diplomat here called Mr. Koroma's newest restrictive order, coming after a three-day national lockdown that required every citizen to stay inside, "a mitigating measure reacting to a worsening situation." The diplomat added, "Tahe numbers are not getting better."

The World Health Organization, echoing the government's increasingly worried tone, said Thursday that the "situation in Sierra Leone continues to deteriorate," noting a "sharp increase" in new Ebola cases in Freetown, rising to more than 80 for the week ending Sept. 21.

The W.H.O. said Thursday that there had been 597 deaths in the country and 1,940 Ebola cases, nearly a third of the total for the three West African countries most affected; the other two are Guinea and Liberia.

Over all, the W.H.O. reported, there have been 2,917 deaths from Ebola. At least 2,909 people have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with 6,242 reported Ebola cases over all, according to its latest report. Nigeria and Senegal have recorded a total of eight deaths and 21 cases of infection.

The numbers for Sierra Leone come from the Ministry of Health, and diplomats and international health officials say they are largely inaccurate, substantially underplaying the gravity of the situation on the ground. "Even a 2-year-old child can look at them and see they don't add up," the Western diplomat here said.

The W.H.O. added a veiled caveat to the statistics in its latest report as in the preceding one, saying that they were "subject to change" because of "ongoing reclassification." Indeed cemetery workers here in the capital report that Ebola deaths far exceed what the government has so far acknowledged.

In contrast, in Guinea, the W.H.O. reported, the number of new cases appears to be rising more slowly.

"The situation in Guinea, although still of grave concern, appears to have stabilized," the W.H.O. said, observing that the number of new cases in the capital, Conakry, was moderate and stable.

The outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal were "pretty much contained," the health organization's Africa office reported this week, noting that Senegal had recorded only one case of infection at the end of August, and that Nigeria had not found any new cases since Sept. 8.

The streets of Sierra Leone remained uncharacteristically quiet and uncongested Thursday, three days after the government completed the national lockdown intended to "sensitize" citizens on Ebola's dangers and to root out hidden cases. Officials acknowledge that the economic slowdown because of Ebola continues to bite hard.

Mr. Koroma pronounced the lockdown a success, saying it had "achieved its objectives." But with the latest measures, it seemed clear that the government was determined to go further, adding new restrictions to citizens' movements.

With hospital beds well below what are needed for the number of cases, a national health care system that is "invisible," as one leading foreign medical worker here put it, and the international response only now gearing up, the government here is left to pursue the only means at its disposal: coercion.

Travel through the districts under isolation to those that are not is now restricted to the hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. In individual infected chiefdoms — traditional administrative units — within the newly quarantined districts, Mr. Koroma took the extraordinary step of warning citizens not to "travel to any other chiefdom until further notice."

The president, sounding grim, said in his speech that "the life of everyone and the survival of our country take precedence" over whatever hardships the latest measures might impose. He vowed to "overcome and free our land from this evil virus."

[derspiess]

there hasn't been an ebola outbreak like this before, correct? so, isn't it difficult to say exactly how it will progress over the next year? people and communities adapt, so i suspect the trajectory of the outbreak isn't going to play out the way authorities suggest.

Some people like to panic.  Like Tim.

[garbon]

there hasn't been an ebola outbreak like this before, correct? so, isn't it difficult to say exactly how it will progress over the next year? people and communities adapt, so i suspect the trajectory of the outbreak isn't going to play out the way authorities suggest.

Some people like to panic.  Like Tim.

Is he really even panicking? Just seems like he's gleefully pasting various articles about doomsday.

[derspiess]

Gleefully panicking, then.

[Admiral Yi]

US is spending 750 million.  EU is spending 15.

[Liep]

US is spending 750 million.  EU is spending 15.

Are you sure about those numbers? Denmark alone is spending about 10 million dollars.

[Admiral Yi]

Are you sure about those numbers? Denmark alone is sending about 10 million dollars.

The EU number is from the EU budget, and doesn't include individual country contributions.

The article I read only mentioned Germany's 2 million.

10 from Denmark is nice.

[Jacob]

Some people like to panic.  Like Tim.

That is very true.

[grumbler]

Gleefully panicking, then.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Are you sure about those numbers? Denmark alone is sending about 10 million dollars.

The EU number is from the EU budget, and doesn't include individual country contributions.

The article I read only mentioned Germany's 2 million.

10 from Denmark is nice.

The EU contributed $180m three weeks ago.  As of today, they have contributed $205m[1], with another $40m promised.  This is all just from the EU budget, too; member states are making major separate contributions as well.  Your source is way, way off on the EU contributions.

[1] That includes the money they sent to the WHO and MSF.

[Admiral Yi]

That's like, your opinion man.

I could have misread.

[Eddie Teach]

Tim, i'm surprised Ebola-chan's got you so worked up. You realize this is, of course, merely an African matter?

Has Japan already closed its ports?   

[derspiess]

Dead Ebola victims are resurrecting.  Not sure if it's a good thing or bad thing.

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

Liberia: Dead Ebola Patients Resurrect?

By Franklin Doloquee
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 New Dawn 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 bizarre 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.

[Eddie Teach]

The zombiepocalypse is upon us!

[grumbler]

The zombiepbocalypse is upon us!