Ebola and other Epidemics, Inadequate Healthcare Threatens Millions

[lustindarkness]

Wow,  so much over reacting.

[jimmy olsen]

Two more suspected cases in Mali and 57 untraced contacts.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/31/who-says-two-suspected-ebola-cases-in-mali-57-contacts-sought/

[jimmy olsen]

Oh my God...

http://news.yahoo.com/leone-ebola-outbreak-catastrophic-aid-group-msf-223833151.html

S.Leone Ebola outbreak 'catastrophic': aid group MSF

Barcelona (AFP) - Ebola has wiped out whole villages in Sierra Leone and may have caused many more deaths than the nearly 5,000 official global toll, a senior coordinator of the medical aid group MSF said Friday.

Rony Zachariah of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, said after visiting Sierra Leone that the Ebola figures were "under-reported", in an interview with AFP on the sidelines of a medical conference in Barcelona.

"The situation is catastrophic. There are several villages and communities that have been basically wiped out. In one of the villages I went to, there were 40 inhabitants and 39 died," he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published revised figures on Friday showing 4,951 people have died of Ebola and there was a total of 13,567 reported cases.

"The WHO says there is a correction factor of 2.5, so maybe it is 2.5 times higher and maybe that is not far from the truth. It could be 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000," said Zachariah.

He stressed that "whole communities have disappeared but many of them are not in the statistics. The situation on the ground is actually much worse."

He added that in some places the local healthcare systems were overwhelmed.

"You have one nurse for 10,000 people and then you lose 10, 11, 12 nurses. How is the health system going to work?"

After isolated cases in Europe, "we might get a vaccine and a treatment... but even now we need to go much faster because the clock is ticking," he said. "We want action now."

[derspiess]

Get over there & help out, Tim.

[Valmy]

Who else is going to keep us informed Spicey?

[derspiess]

We got a company memo this morning confirming that if we get quarantined for Ebola we will be paid for the duration.  LIBERIA HERE I COME

[mongers]

Get over there & help out, Tim.

I was thinking I hope the US and British service personnel over there get some form of citation or official service acknowledgement once the emergency is over. As it's a bit more than a typical disaster relief job, more akin to a peacekeeping mission given the dangers they face.

[Syt]

No update in almost a week from TimNN. Is this over now?

[jimmy olsen]

No update in almost a week from TimNN. Is this over now?

Not much new news that I've seen recently. Thing remain the same as they were last week as far as I know, a worsening situation in Sierra Leone, an improving one in Liberia, and a "stable" situation in Guinea.

[CountDeMoney]

60 Minutes had another good piece on it tonight, the medical personnel on the ground in Liberia.  What a mess.

[sbr]

I heard Morocco is refusing to host an African soccer tournament because of ebola fears.  They are going to try and pawn the tourney off on some other sucker of a country, or just cancel it.

EDIT:  Found something:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/morocco-demands-one-delay-nations-cup-200621681--sow.html

Morocco demands one year delay of Nations Cup

Rabat (AFP) - Hosts Morocco on Saturday demanded that the Africa Cup of Nations be postponed for a year because of the widening Ebola epidemic.

But a government statement did not answer a Confederation of African Football (CAF) ultimatum calling on Morocco to publicly state whether it would host the tournament from January 17 to February 8.

The statement released by the Ministry of Sports said the country was faced with "a strictly health linked case of force majeure" in making its call for a postponement "from 2015 to 2016".

The call was made after "deep reflection," the government added.

Morocco had already called on CAF to push back the tournament to June next year or 2016 but African football bosses had refused to change the dates.

The continental ruling body had given Morocco until Saturday to give a firm response on whether it would stage the event.

The new response from Rabat means it is now up to the CAF, which is to meet on Tuesday at its Cairo headquarters, to move the event or cancel it.

The deadly Ebola virus has killed at least 4,960 people, mainly in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Morocco fears that an influx of foreign fans could help spread the epidemic.

CAF has said the fears are exaggerated and that only a limited number of foreign fans will go there.

The confederation has reportedly approached seven countries about standing in as emergency hosts.

Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and Sudan declined, Ghana and Nigeria have not publicly responded. The identity of the seventh country is unknown.

Morocco said it was "ready to hold the CAN on a sporting, organisational and logistical level."

The North African kingdom said its call for a postponement was "dictated by health reasons of the most dangerous kind, linked to the serious risk of the spread of the deadly Ebola pandemic."

It insisted that its demand for a delay should be "perfectly acceptable."

The Ebola epidemic first hit the Cup of Nations in August when Seychelles forfeited a qualifying tie rather than host a return match against Sierra Leone.

As the death toll mounted, CAF barred Sierra Leone and Guinea from hosting their qualifying group games.

Morocco agreed to let Guinea play games there, but Sierra Leone could not secure a neutral venue and have had to play home fixtures at opponents Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

Deprived of home support, Guinea and Sierra Leone are bottom of four-team groups with two rounds left.

Should Sierra Leone lose in Ivory Coast on November 14 and Guinea in Togo a day later, both will be eliminated from the qualifying race.

[jimmy olsen]

2nd death in Mali

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-30015329

Cases continue to rise sharply in Sierra Leone

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/10/ebola-cases-sierra-leone-sharp-rise

A town in Liberia has lost 10% of its population since September
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/liberia-ebola-outbreak_n_6132228.html

One in seven women giving birth may die from complications in the next year due to the collapse of the health care system. 120,000!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/10/ebola-one-in-seven-pregnant-women-could-die

[Caliga]

We got a company memo this morning confirming that if we get quarantined for Ebola we will be paid for the duration.  LIBERIA HERE I COME

A bunch of useless middle management types at my company keep scheduling 'Pandemic Response' meetings.  Ridiculous.

[CountDeMoney]

I miss those meetings, a chance to watch management panic and come up with harebrained ideas for what Security should do, nod in agreement and then go do what we were going to do anyway.

[jimmy olsen]

We got a company memo this morning confirming that if we get quarantined for Ebola we will be paid for the duration.  LIBERIA HERE I COME

A bunch of useless middle management types at my company keep scheduling 'Pandemic Response' meetings.  Ridiculous.

Don't you actually work in Health Care?