Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[jimmy olsen]

We've failed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-who-west-africa.html?_r=0

The World Health Organization reported sobering new figures Tuesday about the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa, saying the number of new cases could reach 10,000 per week by December, about 10 times the rate of the past four weeks.

[11B4V]

We've failed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-who-west-africa.html?_r=0

The World Health Organization reported sobering new figures Tuesday about the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa, saying the number of new cases could reach 10,000 per week by December, about 10 times the rate of the past four weeks.

Easy. Quarantine Africa to keep them all in one place. No in/no out. Problem solve as they would just die off. 

[garbon]

Hilarious.

[Valmy]

Hilarious.

Yeah I didn't quite see the humor there.

[jimmy olsen]

I grow increasingly concerned that W. Africa will look like something out of the Road or Mad Max in a year's time. A literal post-apocalyptic wasteland where civilization has collapsed far beyond the worst nightmares of Afghanistan or Somalia.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/printnews.asp?nid=49080

In race against time, Member States must increase efforts to stop Ebola outbreak – UN official

14 October 2014 – The Ebola outbreak is "winning the race" against attempts to contain it, the head of the United Nations mission working to stop the deadly virus warned the Security Council today as he urged the international community to help expand on-the-ground efforts across the affected nations in West Africa.

In his briefing, Anthony Banbury, head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), told the 15-nation Council that he is "deeply worried" that the steps implemented by the international community are "not nearly enough" to halt the advance of the fatal disease.

"Ebola got a head start on us," he said. "It is far ahead of us, it is running faster than us, and it is winning the race. If Ebola wins, we the peoples of the United Nations lose so very much...," he said.

"We either stop Ebola now or we face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan," Mr. Banbury told the Council via video link from the operation's headquarters in Ghana.

In its most recent situation report on the disease, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which is leading the wider UN response, reported 8,376 cases and 4,024 deaths from Ebola based on information provided by the Ministries of Health of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, whose UN delegations were represented at today's Security Council briefing.

The agency notes that the upward epidemic trend continues in Sierra Leone and most probably also in Liberia. By contrast, the situation in Guinea appears to be more stable, though, in the context of an Ebola outbreak, a stable pattern of transmission is still of a very grave concern, and could change quickly.

"With every day that passes, the number of sick people increases," continued Mr. Banbury. "Time is our biggest enemy. We must use every minute of every day to our advantage and that is what UNMEER is doing."

Mr. Banbury recalled WHO's recommendation that, within 60 days of 1 October, 70 per cent of all those infected must be in the hospital and 70 per cent of the victims safely buried, if the outbreak were to be successfully arrested. Otherwise, he warned, the Ebola numbers risked rising "dramatically" and overwhelming the overall response.

"This is what we are fighting for now: we are fighting to prevent unavoidable deaths. We are fighting for people who are alive and healthy today, but will become infected...and die if we do not put in place the necessary emergency response," he declared.

In particular, he called for an increase in the number of diagnostic laboratories, transport support, and funding to help with operation logistics which, he said, would help aid the UN response to a crisis so vast in scope and magnitude.

Moreover, with the number of infected growing exponentially each day, Mr. Banbury cautioned that UNMEER could expect new caseloads of approximately 10,000 people per week by 1 December, meaning that 7,000 beds for treatment were needed. He noted that his Mission expected to have 4,300 beds in treatment centres by that date but lamented that there was no staff to operate many of them under current plans.

"UNMEER is playing the critical role of crisis manager," he added, "but responding to a complex crisis, especially one that cuts across multiple national boundaries, requires an overall perspective and a comprehensive plan."

The UNMEER head pointed out that his mission plan would ultimately ensure that no gaps were left unfilled and that resources were allocated appropriately, all the while permitting Governments to own the Ebola responses in their respective countries.

"There's much bad news about Ebola but the good news is we know how to stop it," said Mr. Banbury, while emphasizing that failure was "inconceivable" and "unacceptable."

"We must defeat Ebola and we must do it fast," he concluded.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, a UN children's rights official briefed reporters on the broader UN response to the Ebola outbreak.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, the UN Children's Fund's (UNICEF) spokesperson, Christophe Boulierac, reported that an upcoming conference to be held on 16 and 17 October in Kenema, Sierra Leone, would confront the issues facing Ebola survivors as well as the caring of children infected or affected by the disease.

Alongside the devastating physiological effects of the virus, the outbreak has ignited panic and fear across affected areas with some survivors, victims, and their children, being spurned by their local communities.

Mr. Boulierac noted that one "creative" method to help treat and care for children in a more compassionate manner involved the use of Ebola survivors who could provide those children with the attention they need at no risk to themselves or others. Ebola survivors, as medical professionals have frequently reiterated, are no longer capable of contracting the virus. In addition, he pointed out that the conference would address the stigma and discrimination facing Ebola survivors as such challenges undermined their recovery.

In other news, Karin Landgren, head of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), announced the death today of the United Nations Volunteer who worked in the Mission's medical team and was evacuated to Germany last week to receive treatment for Ebola. This is the second death at UNMIL due to Ebola, after an earlier probable case that resulted in the death of a national staff member on 25 September.

"UNMIL colleagues are saddened by the tragic news as they continue to serve at this very difficult time. Our thoughts now are with the family and friends of the departed," a UN spokesperson said today in New York.

As for international support against Ebola, the spokesperson noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has announced that it will provide specialized diagnostic equipment to help Sierra Leone in its efforts to combat the outbreak. That support will later be extended to Liberia and Guinea.

It will consist of supplementing the country's ability to diagnose Ebola quickly, using a technology known as Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Early diagnosis, if combined with appropriate medical care, increases the victims' chance of survival and helps curtail the spread of the disease by making it possible to isolate and treat the patients earlier, the spokesperson explained.

[jimmy olsen]

Second Texas health care worker tests positive.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29628622

[mongers]

Ebola patients treated outside West Africa*




*In all but three cases, first in Madrid and later in Dallas, the patient was infected with Ebola while in West Africa.

[CountDeMoney]

I grow increasingly concerned that W. Africa will look like something out of the Road or Mad Max in a year's time. A literal post-apocalyptic wasteland where civilization has collapsed far beyond the worst nightmares of Afghanistan or Somalia.

I grow increasingly concerned that you will never contract Ebola and hemorrhage from your ass as much as you hemorrhage on this forum.

[jimmy olsen]

This hospital is gonna get sued.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/presbyterian-workers-wore-no-protective-gear-for-two-days-while-treating-ebola-patient.html/

Presbyterian workers wore no hazmat suits for two days while treating Ebola patient

By  Dianna Hunt 

[email protected]
1:06 pm on October 15, 2014  | Permalink

Health care workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan in a hospital isolation unit didn't wear protective hazardous-material suits for two days until tests confirmed the Liberian man had Ebola — a delay that potentially exposed perhaps dozens of hospital workers to the virus, according to medical records.

The 3-day window of Sept. 28-30 is now being targeted by investigators for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the key time during which health care workers may have been exposed to the deadly virus by Duncan, who died Oct. 8 from the disease.

Duncan was suspected of having Ebola when he was admitted to a hospital isolation unit Sept. 28, and he developed projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea later that day, according to medical records his family turned over to The Associated Press.

But workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas did not abandon their gowns and scrubs for hazmat suits until tests came back positive for Ebola about 2 p.m. on Sept. 30, according to details of the records released by AP.

The misstep – one in a series of potentially deadly mishandling of Duncan — raises the likelihood that other health care workers could have been infected. More than 70 workers were exposed to him before he died, but hospital officials have not indicated how many treated him in the initial few days.

Hospital officials have likewise not responded to repeated requests for comment about what types of protective gear was used the first few days, and why officials felt a need to change the gear being used on Sept. 30.

[Caliga]

Panic time, Tim.

MAH POLISH BOYS

Texas Ebola Patient Flew on Night Before Symptoms Appeared, CDC Says
Second Health Worker With Ebola Flew From Dallas to Cleveland and Back; Fellow Passengers Sought

By JACK NICAS
Updated Oct. 15, 2014 2:05 p.m. ET

The second Texas health-care worker to be diagnosed with Ebola flew from Dallas to Cleveland and back in the days before she reported symptoms, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

The woman flew on Frontier Airlines flight 1142 from Dallas-Fort Worth airport to Cleveland on Oct. 10, the CDC said. She then flew back to Dallas on Frontier flight 1143 on Oct. 13, landing at 8:16 p.m. local time on Monday, the CDC said. The patient began exhibiting symptoms on Tuesday morning, at which point she was isolated, the CDC said.

Ebola patients are only contagious when exhibiting symptoms of the virus, health officials say, and crew on the Oct. 13 flight observed no signs of the illness, according to the CDC. Still, the agency and Frontier Airlines are asking all passengers from those flights to contact the CDC at 1-800-CDC-INFO.

The CDC said public health professionals will begin calling passengers to interview them and answer their questions. "Individuals who are determined to be at any potential risk will be actively monitored," the agency said.

CDC Director Tom Frieden told reporters Wednesday that the agency instructed individuals being monitored because of potential contact with Ebola to only travel via "controlled movement," such as a car or a chartered plane. "That does not include public transportation. She should not have been on that plane," he said, referring to the second health-care worker with Ebola.

He said the agency will now make sure that all other individuals being monitored won't use public transportation, including commercial passenger flights.

Still, he sought to assuage concerns that fellow passengers on the Oct. 13 flight were infected, noting that the Ebola patient didn't vomit and wasn't bleeding on the flight. "There's an extremely low likelihood that anyone on this plane was exposed," he said. "But we're putting into place extra margins of safety, and that's why we're contacting everyone on that flight."

The incident raises a new set of questions of how authorities are handling efforts to keep the Ebola virus contained in the U.S. The episode also could increase public anxiety about risks from the disease posed by air travel, and pressure U.S. authorities to add restrictions on individuals who are being monitored for potential Ebola exposure.

President Barack Obama put off a campaign trip to Connecticut and New Jersey originally set for Wednesday, opting instead to convene his cabinet to review the government's response to the Ebola outbreak.

Mr. Obama will convene a meeting at the White House with senior officials who are coordinating the government's response to Ebola, spokesman Josh Earnest said. He is expected to deliver brief remarks at the meeting's conclusion.

The woman, identified as Amber Joy Vinson, is a health-care worker who helped treat a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, diagnosed with Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on Sept. 30. He died last Wednesday. Another nurse also was infected while caring for Mr. Duncan and is now being treated at the hospital. Authorities haven't reported any air travel by her.

The incident spread concern about Ebola to a second U.S. region. Mary DiOrio, Ohio's epidemiologist, said state and county health officials were working with the CDC to identify people who may have been in close contact with the infected woman and to "implement quarantine as necessary." She said Ohio has been working on its preparedness plan since July.

Kent State University said Ms. Vinson is a graduate of the university and is related to three of its employees but that she hadn't visited the school's campus over the weekend, as some reports had indicated.

On Tuesday, before news of Ms. Vinson's visit to Ohio, top Ohio health and public-safety officials conducted a planning seminar in the capitol, Columbus, to identify any gaps in Ebola preparedness.

The state said Tuesday the CDC had designated the state's health department lab as a "level 3 lab," qualified to conduct initial Ebola testing.

Air travel measures to deal with Ebola so far have largely been aimed at preventing West African travelers from carrying the disease into the U.S., rather than at halting the spread of Ebola via U.S. domestic flights.

Authorities in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the countries with the highest rates of Ebola, are taking the temperatures of all departing travelers. The CDC also has asked airlines to monitor passengers and report any symptoms. Last week, the agency announced it would also begin temperature checks and health surveys for travelers arriving from the affected countries to five U.S. airports. The CDC said those airports account for 94% of the roughly 150 passengers coming into the U.S. from those countries daily.

Health authorities already were monitoring more than 120 health-care workers in Dallas and other people who came in contact with the Liberian man or people who were in contact with him.

The hospital didn't immediately respond to questions about why the health-care worker was on a commercial flight, a day after another worker had been diagnosed with the Ebola virus.

Those flights involved two different aircraft, according to FlightAware.com, a flight-tracking website.

Frontier Airlines said that after the Monday flight with the Texas Ebola patient, that aircraft "received a thorough cleaning per our normal procedures which is consistent with CDC guidelines." On Tuesday, the plane flew five more flights, stopping in Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Atlanta, according to FlightAware.

Frontier said it cleaned that aircraft again on Tuesday night, and then, upon learning of its former passenger's Ebola diagnosis, removed the aircraft from service.

When Ms. Vinson flew on Oct. 10, she hadn't reported any symptoms, the CDC said.

Frontier hasn't taken the aircraft that carried her on that flight out of service, according to FlightAware. "It's currently on its way to Cancun," Mark Duell, a FlightAware vice president, said on Wednesday afternoon. The aircraft has since been to several other cities, including Cincinnati, Philadelphia, San Diego and Denver, he said.

Frontier didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on that plane's status.

—Ben Kesling and Ana Campoy contributed to this article.

Write to Jack Nicas at [email protected]

[Admiral Yi]

Hey Boner, which survival rations do you think taste the best?

[jimmy olsen]

You don't become contagious until you are symptomatic, and it increases as time goes, becoming greatest at death. Duncan's family was in close contact with him when he had just become symptomatic, yet they did not get infected. The nurses who treated him as his disease progressed did get infected. So, it's highly unlikely anyone on that plane caught the disease.

[Ed Anger]

Hey Boner, which survival rations do you think taste the best?

None of these:

[alfred russel]

Where did fate go? I thought he told us this wouldn't spread in a modern medical facility? I feel misled and abandoned.   

[jimmy olsen]

Didn't he say he worked at this hospital? He's probably a bit busy.