ABUJA, Nigeria — West African leaders quickened the pace of emergency efforts Thursday in response to a mounting tally of fatalities from the worst known outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, canceling travel plans and authorizing measures to combat the disease including house-to-house searches and the deployment of the army and police.
The World Health Organization said the death toll had risen to 729 from 672, after 57 more people died during a four-day period between July 24 and 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. In the same period, 122 new cases were detected, bringing the total of confirmed and probably infected patients to 1,323. The toll is the highest in a single outbreak since the virus was identified almost four decades ago.
Federal health officials in the United States on Thursday advised Americans to avoid nonessential travel to the West African countries Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia because of the Ebola virus outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a "Level 3" warning, its most serious type of travel notice, indicating "high risk" to visitors in the affected countries. This kind of advisory is uncommon and reserved for grave situations: It has been used in the past for the outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory disease SARS, and for the earthquake in Haiti.
Desperate to contain the outbreak, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone declared a public health emergency calling for the deployment of security forces to quarantine the epicenters of infection. He also said he would not be making a planned visit to the United States.
His actions followed steps announced in Liberia to close schools, put nonessential government workers on compulsory leave for 30 days and order the deployment of security forces to combat the outbreak. The Peace Corps, an outreach program run by the U.S. government, said it was withdrawing its 340 volunteers from the three countries most affected by the virus.
"The epidemic is very big, very dispersed," said Dr. Hilde de Clerck, the interim emergency coordinator in Sierra Leone for Doctors Without Borders. "It seems logical that the country is reacting. I do understand that the central government has to do something. Cases are now being reported in more southern regions. There is a geographical spread. We do see that it is several districts that are hit now."
Nigeria recorded its only known death from Ebola when an American working in Liberia died there after landing in Lagos earlier this month. The airport authorities said Thursday they had begun checking passengers arriving from the three main affected countries — Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea — for high temperatures, and would order compulsory blood tests for those with worrisome symptoms. Airport checks are also in force in Sierra Leone, and Ghana announced new screening procedures Thursday.
In an address to the nation in Sierra Leone posted late Wednesday on the presidential website, Koroma said the emergency would "enable us take a more robust approach to deal with the Ebola outbreak."
Koroma, who had been planning to attend a U.S.-Africa summit meeting in Washington, said that he would instead travel to Guinea on Friday to discuss a regional response to the outbreak. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia was also reported to have canceled her attendance at the gathering in Washington. President Alpha Condé of Guinea still plans to attend, a spokeswoman at the Guinea Embassy in Washington confirmed Thursday.
"We need to tell everyone that the epidemic is here, it is happening, and it is serious," said Amara Jambai, the director of prevention and control at the Sierra Leone Health Ministry.
In the address, Koroma said security forces would be deployed to support health professionals and that "all epicenters of the disease will be quarantined" along with "localities and homes where the disease is identified." The measures would remain in force for 60 to 90 days.
Public meetings will be restricted, houses will be searched for infected people, parliament will be recalled and top officials will be obliged to cancel all but essential overseas travel. The measures also promised "active surveillance" to "trace and quarantine Ebola victims and suspects."
"The disease is beyond the scope of any one country, or community to defeat," Koroma said. "Its social, economic, psychological and security implications require scaling up measures at international, national, interagency and community levels. Extraordinary challenges require extraordinary measures."
He added: "Sierra Leone is in a great fight. We are a resilient people. And we must not fail. The sustainability of our actions for prosperity depends on winning this fight. Failure is not an option."
With reports of the disease spreading around the world and graphic images of people suffering, there was some concern that the disease could spread much farther afield, including to airports in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.
Lucy Moreton, the head of the Immigration Service Union, which represents immigration staff in Britain, said there were concerns about how staff should react if they suspected that a traveler had been infected.
"There is no health facility at the border, there is no containment facility and until extremely recently there has been no guidance issued to staff at all as to what they should do," she said.
Governments, experts and international bodies sought to tamp down the worries.
Dr. Peter Piot, co-discoverer of the virus and the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there was little risk.
"Spreading in the population here, I'm not that worried about it," he told Agence France-Presse.
"I wouldn't be worried to sit next to someone with Ebola virus on the Tube as long as they don't vomit on you or something," he said, referring to London's underground train system. "This is an infection that requires very close contact."
The French minister of health, Marisol Touraine, offered a similar assessment in an interview with the daily newspaper Le Parisien on Thursday, saying the risk of importing the virus into Europe was low, and that no such case had been documented. Nevertheless, she called for extreme vigilance against an ailment she characterized as both "very serious" and "very contagious."
In Geneva, the International Air Transport Association, which represents most of the world's major airlines, also played down the hazards outside the affected region in West Africa, saying in a statement on Thursday that the World Health Organization had not recommended travel restrictions or border closures, and that the risk for travelers was low.
"In the rare event that a person infected with the Ebola virus was unknowingly transported by air, WHO advises that the risks to other passengers are low," the statement said.
Ebola is spread only by people with severe symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function and finally internal and external bleeding, the statement said. "It is highly unlikely that someone suffering such symptoms would feel well enough to travel."
In a poignant episode, the university clinic in Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany, which specializes in tropical viruses, said Tuesday that it had been asked by the government of Sierra Leone to treat its leading doctor after he came down with the disease.
Physicians prepared a special isolation station to receive the patient, who at the time was too weak to make the journey to Germany, the clinic said. Later that day, the chief medical officer in Sierra Leone was quoted by Reuters as saying the doctor, Sheik Umar Khan, had died of the virus.
Showing posts with label July 2014. Show all posts
Showing posts with label July 2014. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2014
30 July 2014 (Primary Source) Liberia shuts schools as Ebola spreads, Peace Corps leaves three countries
(Reuters) - Liberia will close schools and consider quarantining some communities, it said on Wednesday, rolling out the toughest measures yet imposed by a West African government to halt the worst outbreak on record of the deadly Ebola virus.
"This is a major public health emergency. It's fierce, deadly and many of our countrymen are dying and we need to act to stop the spread," Lewis Brown, Liberia's information minister, told Reuters. "We need the support of the international community now more than ever. We desperately need all the help we can get."
Security forces in Liberia were ordered to enforce the action plan, which includes placing all non-essential government workers on 30-day compulsory leave.
Highly infectious Ebola has been blamed for 672 deaths in the West Africa nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization. Liberia accounted for just under one-fifth of those deaths. The first cases of this outbreak were confirmed in Guinea's remote southeast early this year. It then spread to the capital, Conakry, and into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although the disease can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it. The illness, called viral hemorrhagic fever, has symptoms that include external bleeding, massive internal bleeding, vomiting, and diarrhea.
The U.S. Peace Corps said on Wednesday it was temporarily withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and that two of its volunteers had been isolated and were under observation after coming in contact with a person who later died of the Ebola virus.
The Peace Corp has 102 volunteers in Guinea, 108 in Liberia and 130 in Sierra Leone working in education, health and agriculture.
The State Department has confirmed that one U.S. citizen died from Ebola in Nigeria after being infected in Liberia. Two other American aid workers infected with Ebola, Dr. Kent Brantly and missionary Nancy Writebol, are in serious condition, but they have shown slight improvement. They were part of a team in Liberia from North Carolina-based Christian relief groups Samaritan's Purse and SIM.
'ONLY HEALTHCARE WORKERS WILL BE PERMITTED'
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in a speech posted on the presidency's website that the government was considering quarantining several communities based on the recommendation of the health ministry. www.emansion.gov.lr/
An earlier draft of the measures sent to Reuters specified communities to be quarantined.
"When these measures are instituted, only healthcare workers will be permitted to move in and out of those areas. Food and other medical support will be provided to those communities and affected individuals," she said, adding that all markets in border areas are to be closed.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters that President Barack Obama had been briefed on Tuesday by his homeland security adviser, Lisa Monaco, and that the White House was monitoring the deadly outbreak.
“The CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has said this is not a risk to the United States at this time,” Schultz told reporters traveling with the president back to Washington from Kansas City, Missouri. He said the U.S. government had increased assistance to countries battling Ebola.
Schultz said the White House would proceed with a planned U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington Aug. 4-6 that about 50 Africa leaders are expected to attend to discuss trade and investment between the United States and Africa.
Liberia's President Surleaf said she would not be attending the summit but that Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and a few cabinet ministers "whose presence are absolutely necessary" would attend.
“We have no plans to change any elements of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit as we believe all air travel continues to be safe,” Schultz said.
Last week, 40-year-old Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberianfinance ministry, died from Ebola in Nigeria after having traveled from Liberia. Authorities in Nigeria, as well as Ghana and Togo, through which he passed en route to Lagos, are trying to trace passengers who were on the same plane as he was.
On Wednesday, Britain held a top-level government meeting to discuss the spread of Ebola in West Africa, saying the outbreak was a threat it needed to respond to.
OVERWHELMED
Mike Noyes, head of humanitarian response at Action Aid UK, said people affected by Ebola should be treated with compassion and not criminalized.
"Enforced isolation of a whole community is a medieval approach to controlling the spread of disease," he said.
Some airlines in the region have cut routes to countries affected by Ebola, even as the WHO is saying it does not recommend travel restrictions as a step to control outbreaks.
On Wednesday, Liberian health officials said an isolation unit for Ebola victims in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was overrun with cases and health workers were being forced to treat up to 20 new patients in their homes.
Protests by the local community against construction of an isolation unit at Elwa Hospital have ended, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant minister of health, but patients with Ebola symptoms will have to wait at home until work is finished.
"The staff here are overwhelmed. This is a humanitarian crisis in Liberia," Nyenswah told Reuters by telephone.
Nyenswah said the suspected patients were being treated by trained medical staff with full protective gear, but it would take at least 24 to 36 hours to build the new unit.
Initial resistance to building a new isolation unit highlighted the fear and mistrust health workers have faced across West Africa as they battle the outbreak, which has strained the region's weak health systems.
Dozens of local health workers, including Sierra Leone and Liberia's leading two Ebola doctors, have died treating patients.
Samaritans Purse said on Wednesday it would stop running case-management centers in Liberia after an attack on employees over the weekend and resistance from the local community to the expansion of their unit in Monrovia. The organization said it was withdrawing non-essential staff from the country.
(Reporting by David Lewis and Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Kwasi Kpodo in Ghana, Clair MacDougall in Monrovia, Misha Hussain for the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Dakar, Lesley Wroughton and Roberta Rampton in Washington, Colleen Jenkins in North Carolina; Writing by Toni Reinhold; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
26 July 2014 (Primary Source) Nigeria: Government Confirms a Death From Ebola
West Africa’s current Ebola outbreak has spread to a fourth country, as Nigeria on Friday confirmed a death caused by the disease. Officials said a 40-year-old Liberian government official died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital on Friday after arriving in the country on Tuesday. It is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in Nigeria since the outbreak began in West Africa this year, said Nigeria’s health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu. The Liberian was attending an international conference in Lagos and died early Friday. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital said the man’s blood tested positive for Ebola. One of the world’s most deadly and contagious diseases, Ebola has killed at least 660 and infected 1,093 in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and now Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.
29 July 2014 (Primary Source) Ebola outbreak: Asky bans flights in West Africa
A major West African airline has stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid growing concern about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
Asky said it took the decision to keep "its passengers and staff safe during this unsettling time".
The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures.
In Sierra Leone, the doctor who led the fight against Ebola, Sheik Umar Khan, has died of the disease.
Government officials hailed Dr Khan, 39, as a "national hero".
The government disclosed last week that he was being treated for Ebola and had been quarantined.
His death follows that of prominent Liberian doctor Samuel Brisbane at the weekend.
Police deployed
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
It spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
The outbreak - the world's deadliest to date - was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Asky is the second airline, after Nigeria's largest airline, Arik Air, to ban flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It had not halted flights to Guinea, but passengers departing from there would be "screened for signs of the virus", Asky said.
Last week, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, reported its first case - that of Liberian finance ministry official Patrick Sawyer who flew to the main city, Lagos, in an Asky flight.
Liberia has deployed police officers at the international airport in the capital, Monrovia, to ensure passengers are screened for symptoms of Ebola.
Football ban
"We have a presence of the police at the airport to enforce what we're doing,'' said Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority.
"So if you have a flight and you are not complying with the rules, we will not allow you to board.''
Most border crossings in Liberia have been closed to contain the outbreak and affected communities are being quarantined.
Liberia has also suspended all football activities in an effort to control the spread of Ebola.
"Football being a contact sport - people are sweating - they do contact each other, and that could result in contracting the disease," the president of its football association, Musa Hassan Bility, told the BBC.
"It also has to do with the fans because whenever there is a game, a lot of people come together and we want to discourage gathering at this point," he said.
The association had also told football governing body Fifa to cancel trips to Liberia scheduled for August and September because "we do not want the life of the Fifa president [Sepp Blatter] to be exposed to this disease", Mr Bility said.
In a statement, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that 1,201 Ebola cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Of the 672 deaths, the highest number was in Guinea with 319, followed by Sierra Leone with 224 and Liberia with 129, it said.
The BBC's Jonathan Paye Layleh in Monrovia says that public awareness campaigns around Ebola have been stepped up in the city.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
-Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
-Fatality rate can reach 90%
-Incubation period is two to 21 days
-There is no vaccine or cure
-Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
-Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host
Asky said it took the decision to keep "its passengers and staff safe during this unsettling time".
The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures.
In Sierra Leone, the doctor who led the fight against Ebola, Sheik Umar Khan, has died of the disease.
Government officials hailed Dr Khan, 39, as a "national hero".
The government disclosed last week that he was being treated for Ebola and had been quarantined.
His death follows that of prominent Liberian doctor Samuel Brisbane at the weekend.
Police deployed
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
It spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.
The outbreak - the world's deadliest to date - was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Asky is the second airline, after Nigeria's largest airline, Arik Air, to ban flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It had not halted flights to Guinea, but passengers departing from there would be "screened for signs of the virus", Asky said.
Last week, Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, reported its first case - that of Liberian finance ministry official Patrick Sawyer who flew to the main city, Lagos, in an Asky flight.
Liberia has deployed police officers at the international airport in the capital, Monrovia, to ensure passengers are screened for symptoms of Ebola.
Football ban
"We have a presence of the police at the airport to enforce what we're doing,'' said Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority.
"So if you have a flight and you are not complying with the rules, we will not allow you to board.''
Most border crossings in Liberia have been closed to contain the outbreak and affected communities are being quarantined.
Liberia has also suspended all football activities in an effort to control the spread of Ebola.
"Football being a contact sport - people are sweating - they do contact each other, and that could result in contracting the disease," the president of its football association, Musa Hassan Bility, told the BBC.
"It also has to do with the fans because whenever there is a game, a lot of people come together and we want to discourage gathering at this point," he said.
The association had also told football governing body Fifa to cancel trips to Liberia scheduled for August and September because "we do not want the life of the Fifa president [Sepp Blatter] to be exposed to this disease", Mr Bility said.
In a statement, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that 1,201 Ebola cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Of the 672 deaths, the highest number was in Guinea with 319, followed by Sierra Leone with 224 and Liberia with 129, it said.
The BBC's Jonathan Paye Layleh in Monrovia says that public awareness campaigns around Ebola have been stepped up in the city.
Ebola virus disease (EVD)
-Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
-Fatality rate can reach 90%
-Incubation period is two to 21 days
-There is no vaccine or cure
-Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
-Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host
26 July 2014 (Primary Source) Ebola center in Sierra Leona under guard after protest march
Police were guarding an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone on Saturday, the day after thousands marched on the clinic following allegations by a former nurse the deadly virus was invented to conceal "cannibalistic rituals" there, a regional police chief said.
Across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at least 660 people have died from the illness, according to the World Health Organisation, placing great strain on the health systems of some of Africa's poorest countries.
The virus is still spreading. A Liberian man who died in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, tested positive for the virus on Friday, Nigeria's health minister said.
Sierra Leone now has the highest number of cases, at 454, surpassing neighboring Guinea where the outbreak originated in February.
Angry crowds gathered on Friday outside the country's main Ebola hospital in Kenema in the West African country's remote east where dozens are receiving treatment for the virus, and threatened to burn it down and remove the patients.
Residents said police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds and that a 9-year-old boy was shot in the leg by a police bullet.
Assistant Inspector General Alfred Karrow-Kamara said on Saturday the protest was sparked by a former nurse who had told a crowd at a nearby fish market that "Ebola was unreal and a gimmick aimed at carrying out cannibalistic rituals".
He said calm had been restored to Kenema on Saturday, adding that a strong armed police presence was in place around the clinic and the local police station.
Some health workers from the clinic have been reported absent from work because of "misconceptions by some members of the community," according to a local doctor.
RUNAWAY FOUND
Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it, although the fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent. Highly contagious, especially in the late stages, its symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea as well as internal and external bleeding.
President Ernest Bai Koroma said on Saturday the government planned to "intensify activities and interventions in containing the disease and stopping it spread" with a view to ending the disease within 60 to 90 days.
The new strategy will focus on contact tracing, surveillance, communications and social mobilization, social services, logistics and supplies, according to the president's statement.
The WHO said previously that poor health infrastructure and a lack of manpower were hindering efforts to contain the outbreak in Sierra Leone. Another problem is fear and mistrust of health workers among the local population, many of whom have more faith in traditional medicine.
Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a Freetown hospital after she tested positive for the deadly disease. [ID:L6N0Q03FK]
Amadu Sisi, senior doctor at King Harman hospital, from which the patient was removed, said on Saturday she had been turned in after seeking refuge in the house of a traditional healer. She died in the ambulance on the way to another hospital, he added later.
Health workers are now setting up a new Ebola treatment center in Lakka village, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Freetown, to prepare for future cases near the capital.
Across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, at least 660 people have died from the illness, according to the World Health Organisation, placing great strain on the health systems of some of Africa's poorest countries.
The virus is still spreading. A Liberian man who died in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, tested positive for the virus on Friday, Nigeria's health minister said.
Sierra Leone now has the highest number of cases, at 454, surpassing neighboring Guinea where the outbreak originated in February.
Angry crowds gathered on Friday outside the country's main Ebola hospital in Kenema in the West African country's remote east where dozens are receiving treatment for the virus, and threatened to burn it down and remove the patients.
Residents said police fired tear gas to disperse the crowds and that a 9-year-old boy was shot in the leg by a police bullet.
Assistant Inspector General Alfred Karrow-Kamara said on Saturday the protest was sparked by a former nurse who had told a crowd at a nearby fish market that "Ebola was unreal and a gimmick aimed at carrying out cannibalistic rituals".
He said calm had been restored to Kenema on Saturday, adding that a strong armed police presence was in place around the clinic and the local police station.
Some health workers from the clinic have been reported absent from work because of "misconceptions by some members of the community," according to a local doctor.
RUNAWAY FOUND
Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it, although the fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent. Highly contagious, especially in the late stages, its symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea as well as internal and external bleeding.
President Ernest Bai Koroma said on Saturday the government planned to "intensify activities and interventions in containing the disease and stopping it spread" with a view to ending the disease within 60 to 90 days.
The new strategy will focus on contact tracing, surveillance, communications and social mobilization, social services, logistics and supplies, according to the president's statement.
The WHO said previously that poor health infrastructure and a lack of manpower were hindering efforts to contain the outbreak in Sierra Leone. Another problem is fear and mistrust of health workers among the local population, many of whom have more faith in traditional medicine.
Sierra Leone officials appealed for help on Friday to trace the first known resident in the capital with Ebola whose family forcibly removed her from a Freetown hospital after she tested positive for the deadly disease. [ID:L6N0Q03FK]
Amadu Sisi, senior doctor at King Harman hospital, from which the patient was removed, said on Saturday she had been turned in after seeking refuge in the house of a traditional healer. She died in the ambulance on the way to another hospital, he added later.
Health workers are now setting up a new Ebola treatment center in Lakka village, about 20 km (12 miles) south of Freetown, to prepare for future cases near the capital.
26 July 2014 (Primary Source) Nigeria: Government Confirms a Death From Ebola
West Africa’s current Ebola outbreak has spread to a fourth country, as Nigeria on Friday confirmed a death caused by the disease. Officials said a 40-year-old Liberian government official died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital on Friday after arriving in the country on Tuesday. It is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in Nigeria since the outbreak began in West Africa this year, said Nigeria’s health minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu. The Liberian was attending an international conference in Lagos and died early Friday. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital said the man’s blood tested positive for Ebola. One of the world’s most deadly and contagious diseases, Ebola has killed at least 660 and infected 1,093 in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and now Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.
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