Ebola Outbreak World News

[rdunk]

While there are already two other threads here on the subject, they both have tangents. I believe we need a place here for specifically staying informed about the progress of the Ebola outbreak, and about the progress on the fight against it. We do need to be informed and to stay informed throughout the cycle of this disease, as we just can't know otherwise what actions we might need to individually take.

So, for this initial OP post, I am posting what is simply a very small piece of the reality of the potentially world wide catastrophic Ebola disease outbreak. This is up front and personal in one family's life with Ebola. Pray to God that this doesn't get to wherever each one of us might be!!

Inside Ebola hell: Mirrorman witnesses horror of bodies being tipped into truck at Africa clinic


Aug 17, 2014 22:30 By Tom Parry

Tom Parry reports from the Ebola front line, where the World Health Organisation admits the death toll of 1,145 "underestimates the magnitude of the outbreak"


Seven days ago Oliver Wilson drove his sick, shivering wife Layson to an isolation clinic for suspected cases of Ebola.

The 33-year-old nurse, knew from her symptoms that she had contracted the world's most feared virus.

She knew also that she was about to die from the incurable disease.

But she had stopped short of telling Oliver.

And she deliberately didn't hug their one-year-old son Oliver Junior as she walked alone through the quarantine tape surrounding the tin-roofed hospital unit.

Her fear that she could infect the tot through a drop of sweat or a stray tear was based on sound knowledge.

Yesterday grief-stricken Oliver wept and banged his head against the steering wheel of the family car as he watched Layson's body chucked unceremoniously on to the back of a truck in a white plastic bag.

He had been denied the chance to say goodbye to his childhood sweetheart.

In a macabre scene, the corpses of seven other Ebola victims – including a six-year-old boy – were loaded on to the flatbed lorry.

I looked on aghast as grimly determined mortuary workers, clad head to toe in protective clothing, tipped Layson's corpse off a stretcher – like earth from a wheelbarrow.



The rest of the story:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/inside-ebola-hell-mirrorman-witnesses-4067533#ixzz3Ai3F6sYj

[rdunk]

Apparently China has done their own drug work for fighting Ebola!! Hopefully their drugs will help contain and stop the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola reagent developed in China waiting for approval 

2014-08-15 Ecns.cn

(ECNS) – A nucleic acid reagent to test the deadly Ebola virus has been developed in China, according to people.cn on Thursday.

An application for urgent examination and approval of the reagent has been submitted to China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

The reagent is co-developed by BGI, a Shenzhen-based gene company and the Institute of Microbiology Epidemiology at Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

BGI has participated in completing China's first genome sequence of SARS virus and developing H7N9 diagnostic reagent.

Though the virus has not spread to China and possibility of an Ebola outbreak is extremely low, the reagent is still essential for prevention, said a researcher with the project.

Ebola, mainly spreading through body fluids or secretions of the inflected, is believed to be very difficult to control.

Over 1,069 people have reportedly died from the virus with 1,975 infected in the West Africa by August 11.

http://www.ecns.cn/cns-wire/2014/08-15/129894.shtml

[Norval]

Ebola reaches California, Sacramento.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

State of California, Sacramento [Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center]

[LSWONE]

Ebola reaches California, Sacramento.

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php

State of California, Sacramento [Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center]

My Works at Kaiser and said they had a meeting yesterday about it. The execs played it down as to not alarm employees.

[rdunk]

China's Ebola test kit gets production approval

Please note, we are talking about a "test kit" here!

2014-08-21 10:21 Ecns.cn    Web Editor: Gu Liping

(ECNS) -- A test kit for the Ebola virus developed by China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences has received approval for mass production and will be made by a firm in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, the People's Daily reported Thursday morning.

Researchers have adopted a "compound probe," a technology with independent intellectual property rights over the nucleic acid detection kit. They have developed test kits for H1N1, H7N9 and NDM-1 viruses using the technology.

The test kit for Ebola will be produced by Shenzhen Puruikang Biotech Co., Ltd.

Experts said early diagnosis is important for controlling infection by the deadly virus, as there has been no preventive vaccination or effective drug yet.

http://www.ecns.cn/cns-wire/2014/08-21/130764.shtml

[rdunk]

WHO chief says no early end to Ebola outbreak

2014-08-21 Xinhua Web Editor: Yao Lan

Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan said Wednesday that she saw no signs of an early end to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has killed over 1,300 people since March.

"No one is talking about an early end to the outbreak," Chan wrote in a perspective article in the U.S. journal New England Journal of Medicine. "The international community will need to gear up for many more months of massive, coordinated, and targeted assistance."

Chan said what makes the outbreak so large, so severe, and so difficult to contain is poverty.

"The hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, are among the poorest in the world," she said. "They have only recently emerged from years of conflict and civil war that have left their health systems largely destroyed or severely disabled and, in some areas, left a generation of children without education."

According to the WHO chief, in these countries, only one or two doctors are available for every 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas. What's worse, nearly 160 health care workers have been infected, and more than 80 have died. In addition, isolation wards and hospital capacity for infection control are "virtually nonexistent."



More:http://www.ecns.cn/learning-Chinese/2014/08-21/130848.shtml

[Norval]

I heard on the news that the case in California was not Ebola.

Now a case in New Mexico.

hmmmmm   

[rdunk]

Now the number is 1,427 deaths!

Right now, it is pretty obvious that there is no ceiling for how many deaths there could be during this outbreak. I suppose that a major component of consideration is just how far could it spread?? Last week we were talking about 1,100 deaths so far, and a week later that number has grown about 30%.

Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY 7:56 p.m. EDT August 23, 2014

Ebola continues to spread in West Africa as Sierra Leone voted to pass a new amendment imposing jail time for anyone caught hiding an Ebola patient.

With 142 new cases recorded, the total number is now 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday. The group added that the magnitude of the Ebola outbreak has been "underestimated."

"Many families hide infected loved ones in their homes," the organization wrote in an assessment. "Others deny that a patient has Ebola and believe that care in an isolation ward — viewed as an incubator of the disease — will lead to infection and certain death. Most fear the stigma and social rejection that come to patients and families when a diagnosis of Ebola is confirmed."

Most of the new cases are in Liberia. So far, that country has record 1,082 cases and 624 deaths. New treatment centers are overwhelmed by patients that were not previously identified.

One center with 20 beds opened its doors to 70 possibly infected people, likely coming from "shadow-zones" where people fearing authorities won't let doctors enter, the U.N. health agency said.

"This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system," the agency said. This has "never before been seen in an Ebola outbreak."

The government in Liberia was delivering donated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

Sierra Leone has recorded at least 910 cases and 392 deaths. The World Health Organization believes the hiding of Ebola patients in the country has contributed to a major underestimation of the current outbreak.


More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/23/ebola-spreads-in-nigeria-liberia-has-1000-cases/14489251/

[rdunk]

Well, as of August 26, the total number of deaths now is 1,552, a growth of  125 in just 3 days  since last report.

Actually, by now we can assume that number probably has grown by another significant number! This article is saying, "The Ebola epidemic in West Africa could infect over 20,000 people and spread to more countries". Even at the current 52% fatality rate, that would equate to 5,200 deaths.

Published August 28, 2014Reuters

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa could infect over 20,000 people and spread to more countries, the U.N. health agency said on Thursday, warning that an international effort costing almost half a billion dollars is needed to overcome the outbreak.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a $490 million strategic plan to contain the epidemic over the next nine months, saying it was based on a projection that the virus could spread to 10 further countries beyond the four now affected - Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

With the IMF warning of economic damage from the outbreak, Nigeria reported that a doctor indirectly linked to the Liberian-American who brought the disease to the country had died of Ebola in Port Harcourt, Africa's largest energy hub.

In Britain, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said an experimental Ebola vaccine is being fast-tracked into human studies and it plans to produce up to 10,000 doses for emergency deployment if the results are good.

So far 3,069 cases have been reported in the outbreak but the WHO said the actual number could already be two to four times higher. "This is not a West African issue or an African issue. This is a global health security issue," WHO's Assistant Director-General Dr Bruce Aylward told reporters in Geneva.

With a fatality rate of 52 percent, the death toll stood at 1,552 as of Aug. 26. That is nearly as high as the total from all recorded outbreaks since Ebola was discovered in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.

The figures do not include 13 deaths from a separate Ebola outbreak announced at the weekend in Congo, which has been identified as a different strain of the virus.

More: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/08/28/un-ebola-cases-could-eventually-reach-20000/

[Senduko]

Something from the local news : Suspected ebola patient in Brussel hospital( Belgium )
I'l update if its a confirmed case or not,

The suspected case was a health worker for the red cross.

One does has to raise the question as to why even people who are protected like they are keep on getting infected... Last time I heard that over 270 health care workers where infected.

[rdunk]

Correction  - just above I said, "Actually, by now we can assume that number probably has grown by another significant number! This article is saying, "The Ebola epidemic in West Africa could infect over 20,000 people and spread to more countries". Even at the current 52% fatality rate, that would equate to 5,200 deaths".

If 20,000 people are infected, mentioned as a possibility, then the total deaths would be 10,400 prox, on the assumption that the current 52% rate continues.    

[rdunk]

CDC Director: Ebola Outbreak 'Is Spiraling Out Of Control'

This is just more detail about the reality of the Ebola outbreak, and the fact that thus far, it is out of control!!! "It is bad now, and is going to get worse in the very near future", a statement made by Tom Freiden, Director, for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. He says, "The outbreak is now increasing rapidly". He also says, "This is not just a problem for West Africa, not just a problem for Africa, it's a problem for the world and the world needs to respond".

Atlanta CBS Local  September 2, 2014 12:04 PM

ATLANTA (CBS Atlanta/AP) — The director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says that the Ebola outbreak is going to get worse.

Speaking to "CBS This Morning" following his trip to the West African countries dealing with the outbreak, Dr. Tom Frieden explained that they have to act now to try to get Ebola under control.

"It is the world's first Ebola epidemic and it is spiraling out of control. It's bad now and it's going to get worse in the very near future," Frieden told CBS News. "There is still a window of opportunity to tamp it down, but that window is closing. We really have to act now."

Frieden, who visited Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, will tell Washington tomorrow that the Ebola outbreak is "spiraling upward." The CDC director explained that these countries still need help to deal with the deadly outbreak.

"We need to support countries with resources, with technical experts and with cooperation. Too many places are sealing off these countries," Frieden told CBS News. "If we do that, paradoxically, it's going to reduce safety everywhere else. Whether we like it or not, we're all connected and it's in our interest to help them tamp this down and control it."

Frieden said that they cannot wait for vaccines to deal with the disease.

"Vaccines and treatments may come along, but right now what we have are tried and true methods that we have to scale up. They have worked in prior outbreaks but we are not getting to scale," Frieden told "CBS This Morning." "The epidemic is going faster than we are. We need to scale up our response. We can hope for new tools and maybe they'll come, but we can't count on them."


More: http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/09/02/cdc-director-ebola-outbreak-is-spiraling-out-of-control/

[rdunk]

WHO: Ebola death toll tops 1,900, surpassing all previous outbreaks combined


The Washington Post.com

By Abby Ohlheiser September 3

The death toll from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has surpassed 1,900 people, the World Health Organization's chief said Wednesday.

Less than a week ago the death toll stood at 1,552 people. More people have now died in the 2014 Ebola epidemic than in all previous outbreaks combined (1,590, according to the WHO).

WHO's director general Margaret Chan, speaking at a special UN press briefing on the outbreak, said Wednesday that the "Ebola epidemic is the largest, and most severe, and most complex we have ever seen in the nearly 40-year history of this disease." She added: "No one, even outbreak responders, (has) ever seen anything like it."

According to the WHO, more than 3,500 people have been infected with the deadly virus as of this week in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

While sounding the alarm on the rapid spread of the disease in those countries, Chan added that the outbreak in Nigeria is, while still serious, "much smaller" and mainly contained to those connected to the air traveler who first brought the disease to the country. However, a contact of that air traveler brought the virus to Port Harcourt, where there are now three confirmed cases, the WHO added. Senegal, Chan said, is still reporting just one case within its borders: a Guinean national who traveled there.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2014/09/03/who-ebola-death-toll-tops-1900-surpassing-all-previous-outbreaks-combined/

[rdunk]

WHO says more than 4,200 people have been infected in this epidemic and more than 2,200 have died.

It is getting worse, not better!!!!!!! And we continue to bring more infected people back to the USA!??

Ebola Spreading 'Exponentially' as Patients Seek Beds in Liberia

NBC NEWS.com
By Maggie Fox

The Ebola virus is spreading exponentially across Liberia as patients fill taxis in a fruitless search for medical care, the World Health Organization said Monday.

In Sierra Leone, a doctor working for WHO tested positive and was preparing to be evacuated from the country. Meanwhile, the newest U.S. patient, a doctor infected in Liberia, was feeling a little better and could even eat a little, doctors treating him in Nebraska said.

The various reports illustrated in the clearest possible way the disparities driving the epidemic in West Africa, where there's almost no medical system structure. The three patients evacuated to the United States have all begun to recover quickly once they get good supportive care, which includes around-the-clock nursing care and good nutrition.

WHO and other groups have been warning that the situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea is dire. It's especially bad in Liberia, WHO said Monday.

"Transmission of the Ebola virus in Liberia is already intense and the number of new cases is increasing exponentially," WHO said in a statement.

"In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none. As WHO staff in Liberia confirm, no free beds for Ebola treatment exist anywhere in the country."

For example, in Montserrado county, 1,000 beds are urgently needed but only 240 beds are available. WHO has said more than 3,600 people have been infected with Ebola in this West African epidemic, and 2,000 have died, but the organization predicts as many as 20,000 will be sickened before it's over. Half of those infected have been dying.

More: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-spreading-exponentially-patients-seek-beds-liberia-n198516

[Sinny]

Last I heard the virus was mutating....