Always Africa, because that’s where the disease originates and that’s where, at least for now, the overwhelming number of cases have originated [compared to two in the U.S. and one in Europe].
With a second American-born Ebola infection from the same Dallas hospital ward that was the petri dish spawning the, America has gone into full crisis mode [hence all those Republican calls for an Ebola Czar], and because of notable gaffes by the Centers for Disease Control allowing the infected hospital staff member to fly, all manner of alarms are shrieking [which must certainly amuse a lot of folks in West Africa].
Here’s the press briefing Barack Obama gave Wednesday following a special crisis cabinet meeting, via the White House:
President Obama Provides an Update on the U.S. Response to Ebola
Program notes:
On October 15, 2014, President Obama met with his Cabinet officials and CDC Director Tom Frieden to discuss the government’s response to Ebola.
More from the New York Times:
Obama Urges ‘Aggressive’ Monitoring of Ebola Threat in U.S.
President Obama on Wednesday directed his aides to monitor the spread of Ebola in the United States “in a much more aggressive way,” but said the American people should remain confident in the government’s ability to prevent a widespread outbreak of the deadly disease.
After a two-hour meeting of cabinet-level officials who are in charge of the government’s response to the virus, Mr. Obama promised that a review of the recent Ebola cases in Dallas would determine what went wrong that allowed two nurses to be infected.
With a video link to Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, the president said he had ordered health officials to determine, “How we are going to make sure that something like this isn’t repeated.”
And then there’s this, from the Washington Post [and note the four editorial cartoons posted earlier today]:
An epidemic of fear and anxiety hits Americans amid Ebola outbreak
Ebola started as a faraway thing, and that was scary enough. Then it jumped to a Dallas hospital, where one man died and two nurses were infected. On Wednesday, Ebola took a different kind of leap — a psychological one — as concerns spiked nationally about how the threat of the virus might interfere with commerce, health and even daily routines.
As authorities disclosed that an infected nurse had taken a flight from Cleveland to Dallas one day before showing symptoms, Ebola moved closer to becoming the next great American panic — an anthrax or SARS for the social media age.
Across the country, workers and travelers took symbolic safety steps, wearing sanitary masks or lathering with hand sanitizer. Airline stocks fell as investors bet on a slowdown in travel due to Ebola concerns. Children living near Washington Dulles International Airport told a psychologist about their fears of contracting the disease.
Now on to the day’s other alarms, first Deutsche Welle:
UN Security Council: ‘dramatically expand’ Ebola response
- The UN has issued a unanimous Security Council statement urging the international community to “accelerate and dramatically expand” aid to combat the spread of Ebola. It also criticized the global response to date.
The UN has issued a unanimous Security Council statement urging the international community to “accelerate and dramatically expand” aid to combat the spread of Ebola. It also criticized the global response to date.
Liberia StreikaufrufThe UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously approved a statement warning that the world’s response to Ebola “has failed to date to adequately address the magnitude of the outbreak and its effects.”
The council also urged all member states and aid organizations to “accelerate and dramatically expand the provision of resources and financial and material assistance” to West Africa, where the vast majority of Ebola cases and deaths have been recorded. The UN called for mobile laboratories, field hospitals, trained clinical personnel, therapies, and protective gear for carers.
The council statement also strongly urged airlines and shipping companies to maintain trade and transport links to the countries, “while applying appropriate public health protocols.” The statement also expressed concerns about the effects of trade and travel restrictions, warning against “acts of discrimination against the nationals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” the three worst-hit countries.
More grim news, via Reuters:
Medical charity says has reached limit in fight against Ebola
Medecins Sans Frontieres, a medical charity that has been at the forefront in the fight against Ebola in West Africa, said it was reaching its limit and urgently needed other organizations to step up the efforts against the deadly disease.
The organization currently operates six centers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a total of 600 beds. Its personnel on the ground have grown from about 650 at the start of August to about 3,000 currently.
“We have increased our capacity a lot,” said Brice de le Vingne, director of operations for MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders. “Now we have reached our ceiling.”
De le Vingne called on other actors, such as governments and international organizations, to up their game.
The latest numbers from Voice of America:
WHO: West Africa Ebola Deaths Near 4,500
A total of 4,493 people have died from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak on record as of October 12, statistics released by the World Health Organization showed on Wednesday.
WHO said a total of 8,997 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola had been reported in seven countries, with the vast majority of these in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In Spain and the United States, a handful of healthcare workers are ill, while Senegal and Nigeria appear to have prevented further spread of the disease, the WHO said.
“It is clear…that the situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is deteriorating, with widespread and persistent transmission of (Ebola),” the WHO report stated.
The breakdown from the UN report [PDF]. Click on the image to enlarge:
From the McClatchy Foreign Staff, more grim news:
Concerns mount Ebola will become a permanent scourge in West Africa
As the number of Ebola patients continues to climb in West Africa, concern is growing among medical and development experts that the scourge could become as serious as the one posed by HIV a decade ago – and could be far more difficult to control.
The prospect engenders fears not only that what had been an occasional and easily controlled disease that in the previous 40 years had struck only 1,600 people will become a constant presence in the region, but that it also will sap what little economic energy exists in the poor nations where it is currently felt most seriously, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Experts note that the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept southern Africa in the early 2000s required billions in international aid to bring under control and remains a major health concern throughout the continent.
“HIV is hard to get relative to Ebola,” said David Evans, a World Bank senior economist and the author of a recent World Bank study on Ebola’s likely impact. “I actually expect if we don’t get this under control quite quickly, we could see something even worse than what we saw with HIV in the early part of the century.”
From Sky News, another Ebola alarm:
Ebola Could Spread Globally, Obama Warns
Ebola could spread globally if the world does not respond to the epidemic in Africa, Barack Obama has warned.
The President also said US monitoring of ebola must be “much more aggressive”.
He insisted the second case of an infected nurse in Dallas highlights the need to ramp up efforts to confront the disease that has struck West Africa and has reached US shores.
The President spoke after meeting top Cabinet officials involved in the ebola response both in the US and in the West African region where the disease has been spreading at alarming rates.
And from the New York Times, the latest media furor:
New Ebola Case Confirmed, U.S. Vows Vigilance
New shortcomings emerged Wednesday in the nation’s response to the Ebola virus after it was revealed that a second nurse was infected with Ebola at a hospital here and that she had traveled on a commercial flight the day before she showed symptoms of the disease.
The nurse, Amber Joy Vinson, 29, was on the medical team that cared for the Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan after he was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 28 and put in isolation. Ms. Vinson should not have traveled on a commercial flight, the director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said after learning that she was a passenger on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 on Monday, flying from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth.
But hours after the director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, made that statement, one official said that Ms. Vinson had indeed called the C.D.C. before boarding the plane, but was allowed to fly because she did not have a fever.
A second case of Ebola among the nearly 100 doctors, nurses and assistants who treated Mr. Duncan for 10 days at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was not unexpected. For days, federal health officials have warned that in addition to Nina Pham, the first nurse in Dallas to receive an Ebola diagnosis, other cases were likely.
Here are the before and after stories, with the Before first [making it a tautology] from the Los Angeles Times:
Ebola-infected nurse broke protocol, should not have flown home, CDC says
One of two nurses at a Dallas hospital who tested positive for Ebola should not have flown Monday on a commercial airline, officials said Wednesday, and she was transferred Wednesday evening to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.
The nurse, who had treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, traveled on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas, arriving Monday night, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The woman reported symptoms of Ebola early Tuesday and went to the hospital, where she was placed in isolation.
The woman was among a group of as many as 76 healthcare workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital involved in treating Duncan, who died Oct. 8. CDC Director Tom Frieden said the nurse should not have been traveling by air and he pledged that his agency would work to ensure that others in the group heeded CDC guidelines on self-monitoring.
And the After from the London Telegraph:
US health officials allowed nurse who treated Ebola patient on plane with slight fever
Amber Vinson – second nurse from Dallas Presbyterian Hospital to be diagnosed with Ebola – told CDC her temperature was (37.5 Celsius), but CDC did not say not to fly
A second Texas nurse who has contracted Ebola told a US health official she had a slight fever and was allowed to board a plane from Ohio to Texas, a federal source said on Wednesday, intensifying concerns about the U.S. response to the deadly virus.
Amber Vinson, 29, flew from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas, on Monday, the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Vinson told the CDC her temperature was (37.5 Celsius. Since that was below the CDC’s temperature threshold of 100.4F, “she was not told not to fly,” the source said.
More from Al Jazeera America:
Feverish health worker flew commercial with Ebola, raising fears of spread
- Contagion to hospital staff ‘an accident waiting to happen’; union calls for better safety standards
A second Texas health worker who contracted Ebola from a sickened patient flew on a commercial domestic flight with an elevated temperature before being diagnosed, health officials said on Wednesday, raising new concerns about U.S. efforts to control the disease and the guidelines given to health care professionals.
Chances that other passengers on the plane were infected are very low, but the nurse should not have been traveling on the flight, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Thomas Frieden told reporters. Echoing concerns that the U.S. has not been sufficiently stringent in its efforts to keep the disease’s spread in check, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the country needed to monitor Ebola “in a much more aggressive way.”
The latest hospital employee to come down with symptoms of the virus, Amber Vinson, 29, was isolated immediately after reporting a fever on Tuesday, Texas Department of State Health Services officials said. She was among those who treated Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan at a Dallas hospital. Duncan, who flew from Liberia via Europe, later died.
Still more from the Los Angeles Times:
Frontier jet that carried Ebola patient made five more flights
The Frontier Airlines jet that carried a Dallas healthcare worker diagnosed with Ebola made five additional flights after her trip before it was taken out of service, according to a flight-monitoring website.
Denver-based Frontier said in a statement that it grounded the plane immediately after the carrier was notified late Tuesday night by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the Ebola patient.
Routes of plane that carried healthcare workerFlight 1143, on which the woman flew from Cleveland to Dallas/Fort Worth, was the last trip of the day Monday for the Airbus A320. But Tuesday morning the plane was flown back to Cleveland and then to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., back to Cleveland and then to Atlanta and finally back to Cleveland again, according to Daniel Baker, chief executive of the flight-monitoring site Flightaware.com.
The accompanying graphic:
Still more from Reuters:
Ohio Health Department tracing contacts of second nurse with Ebola
The Ohio Health Department said it is tracing contacts of a second Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola who flew from Cleveland to Dallas one day before she tested positive for the virus.
The department is also working with airline officials to track down additional people the nurse may have come into contact with, spokesman Jay Carey said. It is waiting on additional instructions from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Texas Health Department, Carey said.
And from the Associated Press, posting the bans:
St. Lucia: No visitors from Ebola-stricken nations
The leader of the small Caribbean island of St. Lucia issued an order Wednesday to immediately bar entry to travelers coming from three West African nations overwhelmed with Ebola epidemics.
The Colombian government in South America later announced it would not allow in anyone who has traveled to five African nations within the preceding four weeks.
St. Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said all visitors from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were prohibited from entering his country until the Ebola outbreak is brought under control, saying the ban will minimize chances for the deadly disease to be introduced by an infected traveler.
The Associated Press covers a consequence:
Fresh Ebola fears hit airline stocks
News that a nurse diagnosed with Ebola flew on a plane full of passengers raised fear among airline investors that the scare over the virus could cause travelers to avoid flying.
Shares of the biggest U.S. airlines tumbled between 5 and 8 percent before recovering in afternoon trading. The overall market slumped on concern about slowing global economic growth, but recouped some losses late in the day.
Health officials downplayed the possibility that any of the 132 passengers on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 from Cleveland to Dallas-Fort Worth could have been infected, because the nurse showed no Ebola symptoms during the flight. Nonetheless, public health officials were notifying other passengers.
And the latest on that new patient from the London Daily Mail:
Second Ebola-stricken nurse, 29, arrives in Atlanta as it’s revealed she was given permission by CDC to fly on a commercial flight the day before she was diagnosed – despite having low-grade fever
- Nurse Amber Jay Vinson, 29, originally from Akron, Ohio, is ‘ill but clinically stable’ after reporting a fever at Texas Presbyterian in Dallas on Tuesday
- On Wednesday, she boarded a plane to Atlanta and landed there around 7:45pm Eastern Time, to be treated at Emory University Hospital
- Ebola patients Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantly were kept in a specially-equipped isolation unit at the Atlanta hospital in August after contracting the disease in Liberia. They are now both free of the virus
- Miss Vinson flew on Monday on a Frontier Airlines flight with a 99.5F fever from Cleveland to Dallas the day before she was diagnosed with Ebola
- It was revealed that the nurse called the CDC several times asking for permission to board the flight with a low-grade fever
- When she finally got through, an agency representative said it was OK since her temperature was below the fever threshold
- Three relatives were in contact with Miss Vinson before she was isolated
- White House said today that Obama cancelled a trip to New Jersey and Connecticut to hold an Ebola meeting with his Cabinet
- Miss Vinson was one of 76 medical staff who cared for Thomas Duncan
- The 29-year-old lives alone and has no pets; her home was being decontaminated on Wednesday by hazmat teams.
Another cause for concern from the Independent:
Ebola in Texas: Nurses treated victim ‘without proper protective gear’ in hospital where hazardous waste was ‘piled to ceiling’
Nurses at a Texas hospital caring for a patient with Ebola have described chaotic scenes at the ward where he was treated, with hazardous waste “piled up to the ceiling” and staff forced to work without proper protective gear.
A statement from nurses at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital read by the National Nurses United (NNU) said those caring for Ebola victim Thomas Duncan were forced to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments.
They were particularly worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient with explosive diarrhoea and projectile vomiting, Deborah Burger, the co-president of the NNU claimed.
Some of the nurses caring for Mr Duncan were allegedly also caring for other patients in the hospital.
More from the London Daily Mail:
Nurses caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan didn’t wear hazmat suits for TWO DAYS after he was admitted to hospital
- Shocking revelation comes from Ebola patient’s medical records
- Nurses didn’t wear protective clothing to care for Duncan until after his Ebola diagnosis was confirmed
- Two nurses who looked after Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital have been infected with the disease
- Nurses union alleges that necks and wrists were exposed and some nurses were told they didn’t need to wear face masks
More impacts from the Guardian:
Ebola and economic concerns affect European and US stockmarkets
- Price of oil pushed to four-year low, while FTSE 100 experiences biggest one-day fall since June 2013
Fears of a worldwide economic slowdown and anxiety about the spread of Ebola reverberated around stock markets Wednesday, driving shares on both sides of the Atlantic sharply down and pushing the price of oil to a four-year low.
The FTSE 100 closed down 181 points or 2.8% at 6,211, knocking £46bn off the value of Britain’s top companies. This was its lowest level and biggest one-day fall since June last year. It was also close to a 10% decline from its recent peak on 4 September.
In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped sharply after European markets closed, slumping 420 points – 2.5% – and dipping below 16,000 before rebounding to 16,141. Its recent high was 17,265, reached on 18 September, the day before the record-breaking float of Alibaba, the vast Chinese internet business.
Another scare with more insidious impact from StarAfrica:
African visitor faces UK Ebola backlash
A Sierra Leonean man identified as Amara Bangura has been feeling dejected after being rejected housing in the United Kingdom after two landlords told him they were scared he may have Ebola.The 33-year-old travelled from his native West African country two weeks ago to Norwich to study a Master’s Degree at the University of East Anglia in England.
But on arrival he was shocked to find that landlords were stopping him from staying at their properties out of fear of the killer disease which has killed 4, 400 people in West Africa since March.
He went public, on Wednesday and revealed how he was initially accepted by homeowners before having his application rejected.
A false alarm in Copenhagen from TheLocal.dk:
Ebola scare closes CPH police station
A false ebola alarm temporarily closed down the Copenhagen Police’s Station City on Tuesday evening.
Police say that an African man who had recently been in Nigeria was brought into Station City and displayed symptoms “that the police couldn’t rule out” were consistent with ebola, according to a police press release.
The man in question was quickly isolated and a doctor was called to the police station. After the doctor quickly determined that it was not ebola, things went back to normal.
On to Spain, the only European country with a homegrown Ebola case, also a hospital worker and a health update from El País:
Ebola victim able to drink liquids; has spoken to husband by phone
- Teresa Romero’s condition has improved but relatives warn she could still have a relapse
Teresa Romero, the nursing assistant who contracted Ebola after treating a patient with the virus at a Madrid hospital, is back on a liquid diet and has been able to talk to her husband on the phone, a family friend told the press on Wednesday.
While Romero still “doesn’t remember a lot of things” and is still in a serious condition, her team of doctors are “hopeful” and there is a feeling of “optimism regarding her chances of overcoming the disease,” said Teresa Mesa, a friend who is acting as a spokesperson for the family.
On Wednesday morning, Health Minister Ana Mato said that Romero was still in a stable but serious condition.
And another Spanish Ebola story with a Yankee twist from El País:
US asks to use Spanish bases for Ebola mission in Africa
- Returning aircraft would stop over in Morón and Rota in Andalusia to refuel and rest
The United States has asked Spain for permission to use its military bases in Andalusia in its international operation against the Ebola virus.
Washington wants its aircraft returning from areas of risk in western Africa to be allowed to stop at the US bases in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) and Rota (Cádiz).
Spanish military health officials are negotiating “strict protocols” with the Pentagon to ensure that the 3,000 US military personnel who take part in operation Unified Assistance will not spread the virus during their stopovers in Spain, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Another European Ebola scare, but with a nasty twist from BBC News:
Czech Ebola error sparks Ghana row
Czech medical workers have sparked a diplomatic row after they covered a Ghanaian student in black plastic and rushed him to quarantine over unfounded fears that he had Ebola.
The student was apparently suffering nothing more than a bad cold.
Ghana’s Prague envoy Zita Okaikwe told the BBC that her government would lodge a formal complaint over the incident.
Ghana has not been affected by the worst ever Ebola outbreak, which has killed thousands in West Africa.
Here’s the raw footage of the incident we featured in the 13 October EbolaWatch, via Media News:
From the Associated Press, Ebolaphobia Down Under:
Australia readies for possible Ebola outbreak
Australia’s prime minister is resisting pressure to send doctors and nurses to West Africa to fight the Ebola crisis, saying his government is focused on preparing for a potential outbreak of the deadly disease in the Asia-Pacific region.
A petition by 113 Australian health professors sent to Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday calls on him to send a medical team as well as troops to battle the disease that has killed almost 4,500 people in West Africa this year.
Senior opposition lawmakers backed the call in letter to key government ministers on Thursday.
After the jump, it’s on to Africa and one bright spot in an Ebola zone, a food supply alarm, Ebola’s corrosive effect on human rights, An experimental drug arrives from China for clinical trials [and note who it’s for], a report of the defeat of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on to Sierra Leone and help arriving, then on to Liberia and a healthcare worker strike action ended, good news from one county, the sometimes horrible price paid by crime victims and the ill, allegations of aid corruption, the issuance of hundreds of Ebola get-out-of-jail-free cards, on to Guinea, where another election delay attributed to Ebola is meeting stiff opposition, ten on to Uganda, where survivors of a 2000 Ebola outbreak are being mobilized to help in the Hot Zone. . .
One bright spot in an Ebola zone from Al Jazeera America:
Soon to be Ebola-free, Nigeria and Senegal show merits of early response
- Both countries credited with aggressive investigation and vigilant surveillance, as virus spreads elsewhere
Patrick Sawyer’s collapse at the arrivals hall of Lagos airport on July 20, could have led to a devastating chain of events in Nigeria. Suffering from Ebola, the Liberian-American’s presence in the country sparked fears that Africa’s most populous nation could become the vector for the virus to spread not just across the continent but around the world.
But Nigeria, a country with vast but unequal oil wealth and sectarian rifts that have been widened by the Boko Haram insurgency, has surprised many with how deftly it mobilized its health care personnel working on other disease outbreaks like polio to stem Ebola in the country after just seven fatalities — a tiny fraction of the 4,447 confirmed victims so far, the vast majority of whom were from the three worst-hit nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
As of next week, Nigeria will have been without a new case for 42 days — two incubation cycles of the virus — and therefore officially considered Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO).
A food supply alarm from the Associated Press:
African leaders: Ebola could lead to food crisis
Financial aid and global coordination are needed to prevent the Ebola health care crisis from becoming a food emergency, agriculture ministers from West African nations at the center of the Ebola outbreak said Wednesday.
In Sierra Leone, where thousands are infected and more than 900 have died, 40 percent of the farmers have abandoned their fields, said Joseph Sam Sesay, minister of agriculture, forestry and food security.
Coffee and cocoa beans amount to about 90 percent of the country’s agricultural exports, and the region where they are grown has been struck hard by the virus.
Ebola’s corrosive effect on human rights, via the Associated Press:
Ebola crisis puts pressure on human rights
Some doctors in countries hit hardest by the deadly Ebola disease decline to operate on pregnant women for fear the virus could spread. Governments face calls from frightened citizens to bar travel to and from afflicted nations. Meanwhile, the stakes get higher as more people get sick, highlighting a tricky balance between protecting people and preserving their rights in a global crisis.
The world could impose more restrictions to ward off a disease that has overwhelmed several West African countries, and exposed shortcomings in medical procedures in Texas and also Spain, where Ebola cases have been diagnosed. Such measures can be legal, lawyers say, but the challenge is to ensure that quarantines, curbs on movement and other steps do not intrude too heavily on civil liberties.
“People would rather do more than less, and the problem is that it becomes a slippery slope in terms of rights,” said Paul Millus, a New York lawyer who handles civil rights and employment issues.
Already, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, where the Ebola outbreak has killed thousands, are trying to implement severe controls.
Authorities have imposed curfews, lockdowns and roadblocks. They have ordered a stop to traditional funeral rites that involve touching relatives’ bodies. An entire battalion of troops in Sierra Leone is in quarantine, waiting to deploy on a regional mission to conflict-torn Somalia.
An experimental drug arrives from China for clinical trials [and note who it’s for], via Reuters:
China sends Ebola drug to Africa, eyes clinical trials
A Chinese drugmaker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers and is planning clinical trials there to combat a deadly outbreak of the disease, executives at the firm told Reuters on Thursday.
Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has supplied several thousand doses of its drug JK-05 to the region, Chief Operating Officer Jia Zhongxin said. More doses could be sent if needed, Jia said.
An Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst on record, has killed more than 4,000 people.
From Agence France-Presse, a report of the defeat of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, though at a painful price for some:
DR Congo Ebola survivor lost most of her relatives to virus
Program notes:
Beating the deadly Ebola virus is possible. Half of the fourteen people admitted to the clinic in Lokolia, a city in northwest Democratic Republic of the Congo, have survived the disease, among them 58-year-old Marie Boongo Songo.
On to Sierra Leone and help arriving, via the Guardian:
Ebola crisis: British Army medics due to arrive in Sierra Leone
- Nearly 100 nurses, doctors and consultants are set to join 40 soldiers already in the west African country
British Army medics were due to arrive in Sierra Leone on Thursday to help in the fight against Ebola by operating a treatment centre specifically for healthcare workers.
Ninety-one people, including nurses, doctors and infectious disease consultants, will join 40 soldiers already in the west African country to work at the facility, which has 12 of its 92 beds set aside for those helping to treat others with the deadly disease .
A naval ship with 100 hospital beds and more than 400 personnel is also heading to the country. Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Alison McCourt, of 22 Field Hospital which is based at Normandy Barracks in Aldershot, said her troops want to help provide a safe environment for medics.
On to Liberia with the StarAfrica and a healthcare worker strike action ended:
Liberian healthcare workers end strike
An official of the National Health Workers’ Association has confirmed on Wednesday that health workers who went on strike across the country have returned to work.
According to the Secretary General of the Union, George Williams, their decision to return to work is based on humanitarian grounds and appeals made to them by Liberians. He said the decision was also based upon the intervention of the Liberia Medical and Dental Council (LMDC).
Williams told reporters in the capital Monrovia Wednesday that the go-slow was “very successful as we succeeded in drawing local and international attention to the plight of healthcare workers.”
From the Analyst, some good news:
Bong County ETU Makes Progress – OIC Attributes Success to Lab
One of the Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) constructed in Bong County has reported significant progress in dealing with affected Ebola patients, according to information gathered.
Officer in Charge of Ebola Treatment Unit in the county, Medical Corps Program Coordinator Sambhavi Cheemalapati, explained to reporters over the weekend that the admittance of patients at the unit had reduced, and that very few suspected cases have been reported in recent time which has led to the availability of more treatment beds.
According to her, most of the patients admitted at the ETU have been treated and discharged with only 13 confirmed persons left for proper observation and recovery.
She asserted that amongst the three sections constructed for patients, some of the patients admitted at the ETU did not have the virus at all which meant that they were taken to a safer wall for observation, while those that were diagnosed with the virus were left for further treatment and sent home upon recovery.
And some bad news, via FrontPageAfrica:
Rape in Midst of Ebola: Family Fury Over Daughter’s Fatal Death
“No Ebola team in this republic will carry that body – reason being that when the little girl was alive, she admitted that they raped her and we took her to a legitimate medical doctor of the republic of Liberia that told us that the little girl was raped by an elderly person. The report shows and the Police have those documents. So Ebola team cannot come to dismiss or dislocate the grave of this little girl.”
The raping-death of 12 year old girl Mercy Karkpahn, allegedly by a man, Amos Quoi, aged 60, has her family and residents in the Paynesville community irate. Mercy’s body was found in an abandoned area in the New Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) community in Paynesville. With most of Liberia’s attention shifted toward the fight against Ebola, residents say some sick individuals are committing atrocities against innocent children in various communities under the guise of the deadly virus.
How it all happened
Moses Worlea, Mercy’s uncle explains that his niece revealed prior to her death, she was raped by the 60- year-old man commonly called Policeman in the LBS building. It all started two weeks ago when the family began noticing some changes in the girl’s usual way of walking, which raised a concern and a lot of unanswered questions. It was later, according to the uncle that Mercy admitted that she was raped by the old man in the LBS building. Fulton Dogolai, chairman of LBS Community was reportedly informed about the situation and advised the family to confirm their claim.
Explained Worlea: “She was not walking well; she was walking like someone has a sore between her legs. We the elder when our children are behaving that kind of way, we can be concerned. So we asked a midwife to check her and it was confirmed that she was raped, but the allege perpetrator denied.”
Worlea explained further that the family took Mercy to the Duport Road Clinic as was recommended by the Police, but she reportedly died en route to the hospital. The family then proceeded to Duport road clinic at which several medical checks were conducted, including X-Ray of her reproductive organ, and it was indicated she was raped by and elderly man and some organs were damaged. When the Police was informed, the uncle says, the family was told to bring the medical report from the Duport Road clinic.
Another troubling report, this time video, from FrontPageAfrica:
FPA WEB TV: Only In Liberia – Donated Ebola Items For Sale?
Program notes:
As the world comes to Ebola-Stricken nation’s aid, residents in the St. Paul Bridge Community are crying foul and claiming that they are being forced to pay cash for food.
From the NewDawn, when disease liberates:
Prisoners face Ebola threat – Gov’t releases 581 inmates
The Liberian Judiciary has announced several precautionary measures to control the number of detainees and prevent Ebola outbreak.
At the opening of the Supreme Court’s October Term on Monday, Chief Justice Francis S. Kporkpor, Sr. said judges had been warned that under no circumstance should a person infected or suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus be incarcerated in a matter involving a non-bailable offense.
Speaking at the ceremony attended by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, House Speaker Alex Tyler, Senate President Pro-tempore Gbezhongar Findley and other officials, he said judges were advised that with the involvement of the Justice Ministry, arrangement should be made to refer accused persons suspected of illness to health authorities for testing or treatment.
On to Guinea with Voice of America and another election delay attributed to Ebola is meeting stiff opposition:
Guinea Opposition Cries Foul to Ebola-Related Election Delay
In Guinea, opposition parties are accusing the government of President Alpha Conde of playing politics with the Ebola outbreak as an excuse to delay municipal elections slated at the end of the year and also the presidential ballot in 2015. Many believe it would be impossible to organize voting with a health emergency of this magnitude.
The Ebola outbreak is impacting every part of life here in Guinea, restricting personal interactions, slowing commerce and exhausting the healthcare system.
But the political opposition says that is no reason to postpone elections in the coming months.
This, despite World Health Organization predictions that the number of new Ebola cases will spike up to 10,000 per week by December in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – the hardest hit nations.
And from Uganda, our final item, about a helping hand, via the New Dawn:
Ebola survivors to support West Africa patients
- Survivors of the scourge have asked for support to travel to West Africa to offer psychosocial support to victims and those that lost their loved ones
People who survived Ebola that claimed 100 lives in Gulu in 2000, have asked the government to give them support so that they can get to West African countries to sensitise the locals and give psychosocial support to Ebola victims.
In 2000, the haemorrhagic fever infected more than 600 people in Gulu District and killed at least 100. Those who lost their lives included Dr Matthew Lukwiya, the medical superintendent at St Mary Hospital Lacor.
The chairperson Gulu Ebola Survivor’s Association, Mr Walter Odong, said some of the members in the association are willing to share their experiences through community dialogues, psychosocial support and blood donation.
“Those who are recovering are facing a lot of challenges in coping, they need psychosocial support which we think is lacking at the moment since the initiative is focusing on combating it,” Mr Odong said. Mr Odong, is one of the survivors of the 2000 Ebola outbreak in Gulu.
eats shoots 'n leaves 