Ebola scare: UCTH closes emergency ward after decontamination

The Management of University of Calabar Teaching Hospital has temporarily closed its Accident and Emergency ward after decontaminating the ward where a patient died of Viral Hemorrhagic fever.

The Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Dr. Queeneth Kalu, made this known when she briefed newsmen on the outcome of the blood samples carried out on the patient in Calabar on Saturday.

Kalu said a temporary A&E ward had been set up to attend to patients, noting that those quarantined had also been released and directed to report twice daily for monitoring.

According to her, preliminary result of the blood samples of the patient does not indicate any traces of Ebola virus or Lassa fever.

“We are pleased to inform you that preliminary tests have excluded Ebola and Lassa fever. Further tests are being done for confirmation in line with international standards,” she said.

The management further said that clinical services in the hospital were still opened on inpatient and outpatient basis.

“We are grateful to all who have shown concern over this incident,” she said.

The decontamination exercise was carried out by officials of Medical Response Unit, Centre for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Health.

After the exercise, leader of the team, Mr. John Kehinde, Director of Environmental Health, Centre for Disease Control, advised members of Staff of the A&E ward to go about the normal jobs.

“There is no cause for alarm. They should continue their work without fear because everything is now okay, but they should ensure that the environment where they work is always clean.

“This is what we do in cases of any contagious infection and it will last for 72 hours after which the ward will open for staff and patients,” Kehinde said.

Ebola scare: UCTH closes emergency ward after decontamination

Ebola scare again, doctor, 9 nurses, 5 others quarantined in Cross River

Following a suspected case of Ebola Virus disease in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), the management of the hospital, on Thursday, said it had quarantined 15 persons of the accident and emergency ward of the hospital.

Among those said to have been quarantined were a medical doctor, nine nurses and four medical workers. The decision of the management to quarantine them came on the heels of the death of a patient on Wednesday suspected to have the symptoms of Ebola.

The patient, whose identity could not be ascertained, was said to have shown symptoms likened to that of an EVD patient before he died.

But in a press statement made available to newsmen in Calabar, Cross River State, the UCTH authorities said the patient might have died of haemorrhagic fever.

Chairman of the Medical Advisory Council, Dr. Queeneth Kalu, said the blood sample of the patient had been sent for testing, while identified contacts numbering about 15 had been quarantined.

“On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, we managed a patient who presented with symptoms resembling viral haemorrhagic fever. Due to the remote chance of it being contagious, we have sent the blood samples for testing and quarantined identified contacts. Further information will be made available as soon as we receive the results of the samples for analysis.

“The National Centre for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Health, Cross River State government and the Department of State Services had been informed of the development.”

Speaking, Dr. Sunday Omini, the Director of Public Health, Cross River State, said he doubted if the symptoms are that of Ebola, adding that it could be that of Dengue fever or Lassa fever. Dr Omini said, however, that the Cross River State government is on top of the situation, calling for calm among members of the public.

Ebola scare again, doctor, 9 nurses, 5 others quarantined in Cross River

Ebola: Lagos rejects Sierra Leone AFCON tie

Lagos State Government has withdrew from the hosting of  an African Nations Cup qualifier between Sierra Leone and African champions Cote d’Ivoire slated for Sunday because of concerns over the Ebola scourge.

Akinwunmi Ambode

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) agreed to stage the match after the Sierra Leoneans were banned from hosting international matches because of Ebola, africanFootball.com reports.

The NFF accordingly received a clearance from the ministry of health for the game to be played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

“Lagos government is not comfortable for the match to be played in Lagos. The government doesn’t want to take risks. The officials argued that they have lost a lot of money and top personalities on account of the Ebola scourge,” africanFootball.com quoted a Lagos-based sports editor as saying on the matter.

“So, Lagos will not stage the match between Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire.”

There are now strong indications the match will now be played in Port Harcourt after the NFF opened discussions with the Rivers State Government.

“They have opened talks with the Rivers State Government for the match to now be played in Port Harcourt,” an official said.

Ebola: Lagos rejects Sierra Leone AFCON tie

Ebola survivors face severe pain, possible blindness

Thousands of West Africans who were infected with the Ebola virus but survived it are suffering chronic conditions such as serious joint pain and eye inflammation that can lead to blindness, global health experts have said.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

Ebola survivors who fought off the most severe bouts of infection are the most likely to suffer ongoing medical problems, World Health Organization experts said, and their health is becoming “an emergency within an emergency.”

“The world has never seen such a large number of survivors from an Ebola outbreak,” said Anders Nordstrom, a WHO representative in Sierra Leone who took part in a five-day conference this week about Ebola survivors.

“We have 13,000 survivors in the three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). This is new – both from a medical and from a societal point of view,” Reuters quoted Nordstrom as saying to reporters on a telebriefing.

Daniel Bausch of the WHO’s clinical care team on Ebola survivors said about half of all those who fought off the virus now report joint pain, with some suffering such severe effects that they can’t work.

Eye problems including inflammation, impaired vision and – in severe but rare cases – blindness, have been reported by about 25 percent of survivors, Bausch said.

Less measurable but equally serious long-term problems, such as increasing rates of depression, post traumatic stress disorder and social exclusion, are also affecting survivors.

Since West Africa’s devastating Ebola epidemic was by far the largest ever seen – infecting more than 27,000 people and killing almost 11,300 of them – scientists are not able to say whether survivors’ chronic health problems are unusual.

Ebola survivors face severe pain, possible blindness

Lagos alerts residents on Ebola resurgence

Angela Onwuzoo Following a resurgence of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia, the Lagos State Government yesterday , urged all residents of the state to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene practices at all times as part of precautionary measures to prevent the re-entry of the disease into the state and the country at large.

This is even as the Federal Government on Wednesday urged the ministries of health and health facilities across the country to report any suspected case of the EVD to the Federal Ministry of Health. Liberia, which was certified EVD free by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 9, 2015 witnessed a resurgence of the disease after a 17-yearold boy recently died of the virus. Nigeria was formally declared free of the EVD by the WHO on October 20, 2014 after 42 days without any new case of the virus.

Alerting residents of the state to the need to take precautionary measures to avoid the resurgence of the virus, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Modele Osunkiyesi, said the state government, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other stakeholders are maintaining relevant surveillance through Port Health Services and community surveillance activities in all local government areas. She said the state government had put strategies in place to prevent re-entry of the disease in the state after being certified free of Ebola on the 20th of October 2014 by the World Health Organization.

Osunkiyesi said: “Lagosians are advised to remain calm as your government remains committed to protecting your health. Health workers are also enjoined to keep observing the universal safety precautions when dealing with patients.

For more information or clarification about the disease; please call 08023169485 or 08052817243.” She noted that the prevention of Ebola remains a shared responsibility by all citizens, though there has not been any reported case of EVD in the state or the country, stressing the need for residents to continually be on the alert.

She further urged residents to observe best standard of personal and environmental hygiene practices through regular washing of hands with soap and running water; avoiding close contact with people who are sick; ensuring that objects used by the sick are decontaminated and properly disposed of and avoid touching or washing of dead bodies if not trained to do so.

Osunkiyesi explained that EVD can be spread through close contact with the blood, body fluids, organs and tissues of infected animals; direct contact with the blood, body fluids, and tissues of infected persons; and handling sick or dead infected animals like monkeys and bats.

“Early symptoms of EVD include fever, headache, chills, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, sore throat, backache, and arthritis while later symptoms include bleeding from the eyes, ears and nose, bleeding from the mouth and rectum, eye swelling, swelling of the genitals and rashes all over the body that often contains blood. It could progress to coma, shock and death”, she said.

According to her, there is no specific treatment for EVD, pointing out that infected persons will need to be admitted

into the hospital for specialized care. She also added that those at the highest risk of the EVD included health-workers, families and friends of an infected person in the course of feeding, holding and caring for them.

The Ebola virus was introduced into Nigeria on 20 July 2014 when an infected Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, who arrived by aeroplane into Lagos. Sawyer, who died in hospital five days later, set off a chain of transmission that infected a total of 19 people, seven of whom died. Meanwhile, Federal Government yesterday assured that it is set to develop a package of care guide that will assist in fight against non- communicable diseases.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute gave the assurance in Abuja, yesterday, while inaugurating a Seventeen–man Technical Working Group (TWG) who will take steps towards tackling the NCDs in line with global monitoring framework. The Ministry had alerted of a new case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia, which means that the country which was certified EVD free by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 9, 2015 has witnessed a resurgence of the disease. This followed report that a 17-year-old boy from a village near the Liberian capital died of Ebola.

He was said to have had no history of travelling out of Liberia and no history of coming into contact with any known Ebola case, but that the boy has since been buried even as Liberian health officials are worried that he may have transmitted the virus to many other people who came into contact with him. The resurgence of EVD in Liberia confirms that the Ebola Virus is still circulating in that country and transmission from person-to person is possible. Awute, however declared that the Ministry is now set to adapt the package of care guide to assist the country in proper management of Non – Communicable Diseases (NCD).

Mr. Awute explained that NCDs are a major contributor to the burden of disease in developed countries and are increasing rapidly in developing countries such as Nigeria. He declared that in Nigeria, about 56% of the population now live in urban centres, adding that “with the urbanization, population increases rapidly, with an accompanying shift in the disease pattern which also provokes an increase in the prevalence of NCDs.

He explained that Non–Communicable Diseases are largely due to preventable and modifiable risk factors such as high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, physical inactivity and unhealthy diet, amongst others. Unfortunately, according to Mr. Awute, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) set up by United Nations to combat infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB did not include NCDs such as heart diseases, sickle cell disease or diabetes.

‘’Therefore, it is no exaggeration to describe the situation as an impending disaster, a disaster for health, for society and most of all for national economy’’, he asserted. He then stressed that it was expedient to establish a Technical Working Group (TWG) made up of professionals that will represent the mind and position of the generality of Nigerian health professionals.

Lagos alerts residents on Ebola resurgence

Liberia witness another Ebola four months after clearance

By Gabriel Olawale, with agency report

The corpse of a 17-year-old boy has tested positive for Ebola in Liberia, the country’s deputy Health Minister said late Monday. He added that no other case had been reported.

Ebola

Tolbert Nyenswah, who is also head of the country’s Ebola response, told newsmen that the teenager died June 24 in Nedowein, a town situated close to the country’s international airport, about 48 kilometres south of the capital, and was given a safe burial the next day.

Liberia had been the country hardest hit by last year’s Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organisation, WHO, declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9 after the country went 42 days without reporting a case.

Nyenswah said: “We have said over and over again that there was the possibility of a resurgence of the virus in Liberia. But our capacity is very strong.”

The deadly virus, which has killed over 11,100 people mostly in West Africa in its worst outbreak ever, is hanging on stubbornly in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first reported in March 2014, and in Sierra Leone.

It was not known how the 17-year-old contracted Ebola. The town where the teenager died is far from the borders with Sierra Leone and Guinea, so Nyenswah said they were investigating whether his case might be linked to travel.

Specimens were taken from the corpse before burial, and the tests later came back positive.

“The only complication is that the person died before we tested the body as part of our surveillance system of testing living and dead people,” Nyenswah said.

Nyenswah said teams are already doing contact tracing in the Nedowein area.

“There is no need for pandemonium; people should go about their normal business,” he said.

He called the Ebola testing of the young man’s corpse “a success story for our surveillance system.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon had warned earlier this month that as long as there is one Ebola case in West Africa “all countries are at risk.”

 

Liberia witness another Ebola four months after clearance

Liberia now Ebola free – WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Saturday declared Liberia free of Ebola after no new cases were reported for 42 days, twice the virus’ incubation period.

The last Ebola patient in Liberia died on March 27, WHO said in a statement.

Some 11,020 people were killed in the outbreak, which started in Guinea in December 2013 as more than 26,000 were infected.

The Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or other bodily fluids of an infected person and the fatality rate is estimated to be between 50 and 80 per cent.

Liberia was hard-hit by the outbreak due to a lack of health services.

Scientists and doctors are beginning to study the long-term effects of Ebola on the body, as survivors have reported muscle and joint pain as well as eyesight problems months after being declared cured.

Liberia now Ebola free – WHO

Sierra Leone"s Vice President In Quarantine For Ebola

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone’s vice president has put himself in quarantine following the death from Ebola of one of his security guards.

Zhao Yanbo, Ernest Bai Koroma, Samuel Sam-Sumana

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana is set to become acting president later Sunday when President Ernest Bai Koroma leaves Sierra Leone to attend a European Union conference on Ebola in Belgium. Sam-Sumana will carry out his presidential duties from his home.

He is the highest ranking African official to be in quarantine in this Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which is fast approaching a death toll of 10,000. The news highlights the rise of new cases in Sierra Leone, which has experienced a setback in curbing the spread of Ebola.

Sam-Sumana voluntarily decided to quarantine himself for 21 days following the death from Ebola last Tuesday of one of his security personnel.

“This virus has affected thousands of our people and has nearly brought our country to its knees,” said Sam-Sumana in a statement on Sunday. “We all have a collective responsibility to break the chains of transmission by isolating the sick and reporting all known contacts, by not touching the dead … We cannot be complacent. We must work together as a nation to end Ebola now.”

Sam-Sumana’s dramatic quarantine comes as President Ernest Bai Koroma reinstated restrictions on public movement on Saturday, in response the rise in new cases.

Sierra Leone recorded 18 new cases of Ebola in the week ending Saturday, up from 16 new cases last week. This breaks the trend of declining cases in the country.

Many of the new clusters are related to the capital’s fishing industry. In one case a fisherman died at sea in early February and the boat returned his body to shore in Freetown, the capital. Some of the fishermen on the boat then returned to their homes in the shantytown surrounding the fishing wharf, causing new infections.

President Koroma had recently lifted travel restrictions in order to stimulate economic activity, a relaxation criticized as too early by some officials. In response to the rise in new cases, Koroma on Saturday re-imposed restrictions including a nighttime ban on all boats launching from shore and on commercial vehicles off-loading goods in western market areas. Naval vessels will enforce the measures by patrolling the wharves and coastline.

In addition there will be restrictions on ferries and health checkpoints by the police will be strengthened. Public transportation restrictions will be reinstated which limit the numbers of passengers in taxis to two in cars and four at the back of large taxi vans to reduce physical contact between passengers.

The death toll for the current Ebola outbreak has risen to more than 9,600 from more than 23,800 infections mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to World Health Organization figures released Friday.

Liberia, which has had the highest number of deaths, has succeeded in bringing its number of confirmed cases to just a handful and has reopened schools.

Ebola is currently spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. In addition to battling Ebola, Sierra Leone’s government last week launched an investigation after an audit showed that nearly one-third of the money it received to fight Ebola, about $5.7 million, was used without necessary receipts.

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Sierra Leone"s Vice President In Quarantine For Ebola

Ebola-hit UK nurse in critical condition

A British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and was hospitalised in London this week is now in a “critical” condition, the hospital said Saturday.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

“The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is sorry to announce that the condition of Pauline Cafferkey has gradually deteriorated over the past two days and is now critical,” it said.

On Wednesday, doctors had said the nurse was sitting up in bed, reading and talking to staff from inside her isolation tent in the hospital.

They said she had agreed to have blood plasma treatment and take an experimental anti-viral drug, which was unnamed but was not ZMapp, the drug used to successfully treat fellow British volunteer nurse William Pooley.

Dr Michael Jacobs, infectious diseases consultant at the Royal Free London, had warned at the time that “Ebola runs a very variable course and the next few days are going to be very critical”.

Cafferkey, who works for Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS), had been volunteering at a British-built treatment centre in Sierra Leone when she contracted the deadly virus.

She was diagnosed in Glasgow on December 29 after flying back to the Scottish city from west Africa, and was transferred to the Royal Free London, which has the only isolation ward in Britain equipped for Ebola patients.

Cafferkey is the second person to be treated for Ebola in Britain after Pooley, who recovered and has since returned to Sierra Leone.

 

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Ebola-hit UK nurse in critical condition

US to quarantine Nigerian doctors on medical mission

The United States – based Nigerian health professionals comprising medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists on medical mission in Abia State said they would be quarantined for 21 days for Ebola virus when they returned to the US.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

Leader of the 75- man team and the National President of Abia State Nationals Association of North America , Dr. Christian Ike disclosed this at a press conference in Umuahia after the teams’s one week free medical services in Abia State.

He decried the stigmatization of Ebola – infested countries by the West, wondering why visitors to Nigeria would still be isolated even when the country has been certified “Ebola – free.”

Dr. Ike said members of the team who are Abia indigenes and health experts made a lot of sacrifices to sponsor the medical mission but noted that their passion for the people was their driving force.

He said the gesture was part of their contribution towards the development of the state and to complement the efforts of the state government in the health sector.

Dr. Ike said the team had committed over $420,000 on drugs alone besides transport fare, accommodation and other logistics, adding that all members of the team comprising 24 doctors, 21 pharmacists , and 30 nurses were all volunteers.

His words, “Our joy is that we are privileged to be at the giving end, and we want our people to have access to quality medical care.”

Dr. Ike said over 6200 patients diagnosed with various ailments received treatments at the exercise while 74 surgeries were conducted.

According to him , malaria, diabetes , high blood pressure and eye-related problems were discovered to be the commonest of the cases they handled.

He decried the high rate of these killer diseases especially diabetes and high blood pressure which he said were discovered to be common even among youths, and called for improved diets and regular medical check – ups as a remedy.

” People should reduce their intake of starch and eat more of fruits,” he advised.

Ike said that the team also disclosed to the patients the names of drugs prescribed for them and gave them instructions on local hospitals to go for follow-up treatments.

The Atlanta Georgia- based Pharmacist said the association had initiated talks with the state government for some health facilities in the state to be taken over and run by medical experts of Abia origin based overseas so that the people could be offered the kind of medical services equivalent to what is obtainable abroad.

He lauded the efforts of government in the health sector but called for more expansion and improvement on the available facilities and access roads to hospitals.

The team which grouped itself into three for wider coverage, conducted services at well publicised and strategic hospitals and public institutions at all three senatorial districts in the state. It also extended the gesture to the state’s police command.

US to quarantine Nigerian doctors on medical mission

Peter Piot: discovering Ebola "was the highlight of my life"

• Scientist says WHO took too long to deal with Ebola

• Calls American approach to Ebola ‘an epidemic of hysteria’

On Saturday’s episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot speaks frankly with presenter Felicity Barr about helping discover the Ebola virus in 1976.

“It was the highlight of my life,” admits Peter. “It’s a dream of every microbiologist to discover a new virus.”

28 years later, he’s critical of The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) response to the current outbreak.

“It took three months for the WHO to find out there was an Ebola outbreak. That I understand. Guinea had a poor laboratory infrastructure,” he says.

“I have much more of a problem with the fact that it took five months for WHO, for the international health regulations committee, for that’s what it is, to declare this a state of emergency.

“It took a thousand dead Africans and two Americans who were repatriated to the US because they were infected. There’s no excuse for that… It took too long; we wasted too much precious time.”

Having waited too long to act, he believes the international community has then over-reacted in unhelpful ways. “There is an epidemic of Ebola in West Africa and then there is a second epidemic, an epidemic of mass hysteria that we saw particularly in North America,” says Peter. “It was really out of proportion with the issue.”

For example, he criticizes the governors of New York and New Jersey for mandating quarantine for healthcare workers returning from West Africa.

“Of course, people have become infected,” he says. “One nurse has become infected in Texas, but you know, putting people in quarantine who return from West Africa for 21 days – as some US states are imposing – doesn’t make sense from a public health perspective. It’s not cost-effective and also it’s a major deterrent and disincentive for supporting the countries in West Africa.

“On the one hand, countries like the US and the UK really provide admirable support – money, human resources, even the military — and that’s great. But you can’t then say at the same time: ‘When you come back, we put you quarantined for 21 days,’ because then, you know, the number of people who want to do this, they usually have a busy life, they won’t be volunteering anymore.”

He says any potential solutions need to address both the lack of robust healthcare systems and the local population’s cultural habits and belief systems. For example, he says some parts of West Africa have a habit of touching the dead at funerals, while others may believe in ‘witchcraft.’

“The concept of an infectious agent is not always there,” he says. “People may think it’s witchcraft or ‘someone wanted me to die’ or whatever…”

He says this is why: “You need people who speak the language, who understand the culture, who know what people think and feel.”

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Peter Piot: discovering Ebola "was the highlight of my life"

Sperm can carry Ebola for 82 days -WHO

Sperm can carry the Ebola virus for at least 82 days, the World Health Organization said Friday, urging men recovering from the disease to use condoms for three months after the onset of symptoms.

“Because of the potential to transmit the virus sexually during this time, they should maintain good personal hygiene after masturbation, and either abstain from sex (including oral sex) for three months after onset of symptoms, or use condoms if abstinence is not possible,” the WHO said in a statement.

In four studies, on a total of 43 patients, three men who had recovered from Ebola still had the live virus in their semen 40 days, 61 days and 82 days respectively after the onset of symptoms.

The WHO said that no case of sexual transmission of Ebola had been documented, and that it was unclear whether semen that tests positive for Ebola is actually infectious.

The four studies were carried out in different countries, with the first dating back more than 30 years.

Ebola is highly contagious but, even if a person is infected, the virus can only be passed on once symptoms appear and only through direct contact with bodily fluids.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, diarrhea, vomiting and in some cases bleeding.

The biggest Ebola epidemic on record has claimed around 5,700 lives since the beginning of the year, according to the WHO — almost all of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Sperm can carry Ebola for 82 days -WHO

Striking Ebola Burial Workers Dump Bodies In Front Of Hospital in Sierra Leone

Burial workers for an ebola clinic in Kenema Hospital, Sierra Leone, have dumped the corpses of Ebola victims at the hospital entrance to display their anger at unpaid ‘hazard pay’ allowances.

Burial Workers At King Tom Cemetery, Sierra Leone
Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

The workers, who are on strike, are said to have left two bodies at the hospital entrance and one by the hospital manager’s office.

Kenema is a major city in Sierra Leone and has recorded about ten percent of confirmed Ebola cases in the country.

Two weeks ago a number of Ebola health workers went on strike in the nearby city of Bo to protest unpaid allowances strike to protest unpaid allowances.

Despite signs of progress in reducing the rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia and Guinea, Sierra Leone continues to experience a surge in new infections with about 500 new cases in the last week alone.

The head of The UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Anthony Banbury, has warned that health authorities are losing control of the crisis in certain rural areas which have little to no intervention resources.

“It’s clear where there are escalating cases rapidly accelerating the spread of the disease, and where we don’t have the response capability on the ground, and that’s definitely the case in some places, we’re not going make it.” Banbury said.

The 2014 Ebola crisis has killed over 5000 people mostly in West Africa, with over 15000 cases recorded to date.

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Striking Ebola Burial Workers Dump Bodies In Front Of Hospital in Sierra Leone

Robbers steal ‘Ebola blood samples’ in Guinea

Robbers in Guinea have stolen blood samples believed to be infected with Ebola, the Red Cross in the West African nation has said.

The samples, stored in tightly wrapped vials tucked into a cooler bag, were in the care of a Red Cross courier who was among nine passengers sharing a taxi when three men on a motorbike robbed the vehicle and took the samples, said Saa Mamady Leno of the Red Cross in Gueckedou.

The robbers forced the passengers out of the vehicle on Wednesday, stole mobile phones, cash and jewelry, and fired into the air as they demanded the handover of the cooler bag, Leno said.

The courier was taking the blood samples on a 265km journey along winding rural roads from central Kankan prefecture to a test site in southern Gueckedou.

Faya Etienne Tolno, a spokesman for the Guinea Red Cross, said the aid group had a shortage of vehicles for transport, which explains why a taxi was used. No one was injured in the incident, which took place on a road known for banditry.

“We don’t understand why they stole the blood sample. Perhaps they thought there was cash hidden in the flask,” Tolno said.

Dr Barry Moumie, who heads patient care for the national Ebola response coordination committee, told the Associated Press news agency: “We have informed the security services. If these thieves handle this blood, it will be dangerous.”

Authorities publicly appealed on national radio on Friday to the unidentified robbers to hand over the samples.

Ebola, which has killed more than 5,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, is spread primarily by contact with infected bodily fluids including blood, faeces and vomit.

The virus emerged in Guinea at the start of the year and has infected around 1,900 Guineans, killing almost 1,200.

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Robbers steal ‘Ebola blood samples’ in Guinea

Ebola kills doctor in US

A doctor who spent time treating Ebola patients in West Africa died from the virus Monday. The death of Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, marks the second time Ebola has claimed a victim in the United States.

Dr. Martin Salia

Salia died at around 5 a.m. ET Monday, according to Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson.

A legal permanent resident of the United States, Salia was treating patients in West Africa when he contracted the virus.

Salia arrived Saturday at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The hospital tweeted Monday that he was “extremely critical” when his treatment began and “unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him.”

Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola, including kidney and respiratory failure, health officials said.

The first Ebola patient to die in the United States was Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Texas in September from that West African country that, like Sierra Leone and Guinea, has been hit the hardest by the Ebola epidemic.

Duncan, 42, died at a Dallas hospital. He initially went to the same facility’s emergency room after he began having symptoms, but he was misdiagnosed and sent home. Two days later, he was back in the hospital, where he tested positive for the virus and his treatment began.

It is rare for someone to die in the United States from Ebola because medical and monetary resources are extensive — much more so than in West Africa.

When Salia was in Sierra Leone, the team caring for him characterized him as critical ill, possibly sicker than patients treated successfully in the United States, according to Nebraska health officials.

Salia’s wife, a Maryland resident, pushed to get him evacuated from Sierra Leone, the U.S. State Department said. An air ambulance crew evaluated him in Freetown and determined he was well enough to travel.

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Ebola kills doctor in US

Suspcion, anger and fear-the harsh reality of daily life in Ebola-hit Liberia

• Award-winning series Africa Investigates back on Al Jazeera

•Liberia: Living With Ebola starts on Wednesday, 12 November at 22:30 GMT

Ebola

The second season of Al Jazeera’s award-winning Africa Investigates kicks off on Wednesday, 12 November 2014, asking whether the Liberian government is making the Ebola crisis worse.

“This groundbreaking series gives some of Africa’s best journalists the opportunity to pursue high-level investigative targets across the continent – using their unique perspective and local knowledge to put corruption, exploitation and abuse under the spotlight,”says Al Jazeera English’s executive producer Diarmuid Jeffreys, who adds that the first season’s Spell of The Albino won a One World Media Award and was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award.

In the first episode of the second season, Liberia: Living with Ebola, Sierra Leone’s Emmy, BAFTA and Peabody winner Sorious Samura teams up with Liberian investigative journalist Mae Azango, a winner of International Press Freedom Awards from both The Committee to Protect Journalists and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Working together, the pair explores the reality of living through the world’s deadliest Ebola epidemic, which has killed nearly 5 000 people in eight nations.

Sorious and Mae film with a Red Cross body collection team who risk their lives travelling around Monrovia picking up the dangerously contagious corpses of the deceased.  They also spend time in an Ebola treatment unit run by Medecins Sans Frontieres and follow emergency response teams working in the Red Light slum, one of Monrovia’s poorest and most densely populated districts.

Some of these Red Cross workers are unpaid volunteers, like Robert. “I’m doing this to have this particular sickness alleviated from my country,”he says. “I love my people.”

But Sorious and Mae also encounter deep anger among Liberian health workers. Most receive $280 a month for jobs that bring them into daily, dangerous contact with Ebola victims. Many are suspicious that government corruption is preventing the distribution of money donated by the international community.

“This remarkable film gives a deeply disturbing insight into what it is like to live in a society gripped by dread of contagion and mistrust of the authorities, a place where no-one shakes hands any more, where a mother will think twice before picking up a sick child to give it comfort,”says Diarmuid. “But it is also a world in which ordinary people are making the most extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of their community – and indeed the rest of us.  If the fight against this deadly virus is to be won, then it is in places like Liberia’s slums, the very poorest and most deprived on earth, where Ebola must be overcome.“

As in 2011, Africa Investigates is produced in collaboration with the Emmy-winning investigative team at Insight TWI: The World Investigates. Liberia: Living With Ebola is directed by Clive Patterson and features original music composed by Grammy Award winner Daniel Platzman.

Liberia: Living with Ebola premieres on Wednesday, 12 November 2014 at 22:30 GMT in Liberia and at 23:30 CAT, with repeats on 13 November at 10:30, 14 November at 04:30, 15 November at 17:30, and 16 November at 06:30 CAT.

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Suspcion, anger and fear-the harsh reality of daily life in Ebola-hit Liberia

WHO declares Nigeria Ebola free

Nigeria has been declared officially free of Ebola after six weeks with no new cases, the World Health Organisation says.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

Africa’s most populous country won praise for its swift response after an infected Liberian diplomat brought the disease there in July.

The WHO officially declared Senegal Ebola-free on Friday.

The outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

An estimated 70 per cent of those infected have died in those countries.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss how to strengthen their response to the threat posed by Ebola.

European countries have committed more than 500m euros (£400m; $600m) but the UK is pressing to double that amount.

The money is being sought to help reinforce over-stretched healthcare systems in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and to mitigate the damage Ebola is doing to their economies.

Ahead of the talks, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier suggested the EU could send a civilian EU mission to West Africa that would serve as a platform for sending medical staff.

Another diplomat said there were plans for three countries to spearhead aid to the region – the UK for Sierra Leone, France for Guinea and the US for Liberia.

Earlier, the Spanish government said a nurse who became the first person to contract Ebola outside West Africa had tested negative for the virus.

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WHO declares Nigeria Ebola free

China sends Ebola drug to Africa, eyes clinical trials

Shanghai –  A Chinese drug maker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers.

The countries include Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Chief Operating Officer, Jia Zhongxin, said on Thursday in Shanghai that Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd (SPHGL) were formulating clinical trials without ruling out the possibility of using African patients.

“Right now, we’re formulating a plan for clinical trials and don’t rule out the possibility of using African patients,” he said.

“Any outbreak of Ebola in Asia or China will speed up the drug’s time table to market,’’ he added.

Zhongxin said they had supplied several thousand doses of the drug, JK-05, to the region and more doses could be sent if needed.

He said if the trial dosage proved to be an effective cure, it would be a big prize for China’s medical sector and a boost to China’s soft power in Africa

Huo Sihuan, Assistant General Manager SPHGL, said pushing the drugs into the market had become imperative because there were over a million Chinese nationals living in Africa.

She said that over 10,000 of them were in countries most affected by Ebola like Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Sihuan said the company had signed an agreement with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), a research unit, to seek approval for the drug’s use in China and push it to market.

She said all the aid workers to the Ebola infected countries had already taken the drug with them and if a case broke out amongst them it would become handy for use.

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China sends Ebola drug to Africa, eyes clinical trials

Ebola: Second Texas health worker tests positive

By CNN

A second health worker in the US state of Texas has tested positive for Ebola, health officials say.A 26-year-old female nurse is already receiving treatment after becoming infected by a Liberian man who died from the deadly virus last week.

Ebola

Meanwhile, the UN’s Ebola mission chief says the world is falling behind in the race to contain the virus.

The World Health Organisation says 4,447 people have died from the outbreak, mainly in West Africa.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have been hardest hit by the outbreak, which began in December 2013 but was confirmed in March.

Anthony Banbury told a special session of the UN Security Council on Tuesday that if Ebola was not stopped now, the world would “face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we do not have a plan”.President Barack Obama is due to hold a video conference with British, French, German and Italian leaders to discuss the Ebola crisis later on Wednesday.

Nina Pham was exposed to Ebola at a Dallas hospital when she treated Liberian Thomas Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the virus on US soil.Doctors at the Health Presbyterian hospital said she was in good condition on Tuesday.

The identity of the second health worker has not yet been revealed, however, the person also cared for Duncan while he was in hospital.

The health worker was immediately isolated after reporting a fever on Tuesday, the Texas State Department for Health said in a statement.”Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored,” the department said.

US officials previously said they were monitoring 48 contacts of the Liberian national and the healthcare workers who treated him.

The US Centers for Disease Control expressed concern over the latest development in a statement, but added that it was “not unexpected that there would be additional exposures”.

It has announced new measures to improve hospital preparedness for Ebola treatment, including an immediate response team that will travel to the site of any future Ebola diagnoses to hit the ground “within hours”.

Nurses at the Dallas hospital say they worked for days without adequate protective clothing and received little guidance on how to prevent the spread of the virus.

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Ebola: Second Texas health worker tests positive

Ebola: Health care worker tests positive at Texas hospital

A Texas health care worker who treated US Ebola victim Thomas Duncan before his death has tested positive for the virus, officials say.

A picture taken on July 24, 2014 shows staff of the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse putting on protective gear in the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia. An American doctor battling West Africa’s Ebola epidemic has himself fallen sick with the disease in Liberia, Samaritan’s Purse said on July 27. AFP PHOTO

“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Duncan, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, died at a Dallas hospital on Wednesday.

The health worker has not been named.

Duncan tested positive in Dallas on September 30, 10 days after arriving on a flight from Monrovia via Brussels.

He became ill a few days after arriving in the US, but after going to hospital and telling medical staff he had been in Liberia, he was sent home with antibiotics.

He was later put into an isolation unit at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas but died despite being given an experimental drug.

It is not clear at which point the health worker, who has tested positive in a preliminary test, came into contact with Duncan.

The current Ebola outbreak, concentrated in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, has resulted in more than 8,300 confirmed and suspected cases, and at least 4,033 deaths.

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Ebola: Health care worker tests positive at Texas hospital