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Statement from US nurses’ union alleges Liberian Ebola patient was left in the open for hours
....

...probably checking that his medical insurance was adequate.
 
probably checking that his medical insurance was adequate.

I think that explains why he was originally sent home with antibiotics, but this sounds more like sheer incompetence. The US has four medical facilities that are specifically designed to deal with dangerous and infectious diseases and once Ebola looked likely Duncan should have been immediately transferred to one of these places rather than relying on what seems to be a pretty crappy local hospital to deal with it.
 
VERY long article:

'We're a floating petri dish': Panic onboard the 'Ebola cruise'
When a woman who had worked in an Ebola laboratory was found to be travelling on a Caribbean cruise ship, panic ensued, writes Nick Allen and Rob Crilly
5:32PM BST 18 Oct 2014

It was supposed to be an escape to the Caribbean sunshine for a week of partying, relaxation, and sipping champagne while watching gorgeous sunsets from the decks of a luxury cruise ship.
But four days after the Carnival Magic set sail from Galveston, Texas rumours began swirling that all was not well on board.

The ship, complete with a swimming pool, an array of water slides, and a giant cinema screen, inexplicably stopped off the coast of Belize and the whispers began.
"The rumours were going round - we were stuck in the mud. Someone's been kidnapped," said one passenger.
As the theories got wilder over the clink of cocktail glasses at the bar, no-one imagined they were actually about to be at the centre of an international Ebola scare.

Finally, the captain confirmed on the loudspeaker that, among their number, was a woman who worked as a lab supervisor at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
She had processed clinical samples from Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Mr Duncan, 42, died on Oct 8, four days before the ship sailed.
The lab supervisor, and her husband, were voluntarily quarantined in their cabin as fear spread on the ship, which is due to arrive back in Galveston on Sunday.

Passenger Jon Malone said there was "utter panic" on board, adding: "People are scared. I've seen people crying. You're using the same buffet line as someone else, the same waiters, the folks that clean the state rooms.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ruise.html
 
Our local health department last week announced that two people had shown up at the hospital seeking to be tested for ebola virus. When the reporters asked them if the tests were positive or negative, the health dept. refused to say. :? :roll:

Well, I'm loading up on garlic. I have no idea if garlic in any way prevents ebola, but it's the only cheap, readily available anti-viral I can think of. It certainly does help prevent colds and flu, I can tell you that. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but it's coming up on flu season anyway, and I catch it with clockwork efficiency without one clove of garlic per day.

(I've been terrified of ebola virus ever since reading "the hot zone" back in the 90's. Ironically, I comforted myself with the idea that it was unlikely to ever show up in this neck of the woods. Har-de-har. )
 
Nigeria has done a better job on Ebola than US has done

I read an article on IrishCentral early last week that started gnawing at me later in the week. In the article Irish doctor Eilish Cleary, who also happens to be the Chief Medical Officer of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, explained how Nigeria had managed to become Ebola free following the arrival of the disease in August.

There was nothing wrong with the article. In fact, it was uplifting. I rarely read about competent management and government in Africa, but this story had lots of that. Cleary explained how Nigeria managed to contain the spread of Ebola after Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer collapsed and died in the airport in Nigeria's capital city, Lagos. Sawyer was the first, but shortly after he died there were 19 reported cases in Africa's most populous nation. Yet, the disease didn't spread uncontrollably. In fact as of Monday, October 20 Nigeria is officially Ebola free. ...

Doesn't sound like rocket science. In fact, it sounds like hard work and attention to detail is what it takes. It's fantastic that Nigeria was able to so successfully beat the disease back. ...

Still, reading the more sober wing of the press was far from reassuring: a man with Ebola managed to enter America; two health workers at the hospital that first sent him home and then treated him ended up infected themselves, but only after one of those nurses was told she could fly to Cleveland only to be later told, 'Uh, maybe not' after she'd already gone; and a lab technician who handled a specimen from the now dead Liberian went off on a Caribbean cruise. A shambles. ...

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/oth ... done.html#
 
Sales director at work came in this morning from his usual base in Nigeria.
He told us that at the airport in Nigeria, he had the full battery of tests. When he came through at Heathrow at the weekend, not a thing. No tests at all.

He told us about his visit to a pub in London over the weekend. He was talking to a bunch of people, and he mentioned he'd just flown in from West Africa. He said the room went so quiet, he could almost hear the tumbleweed blowing past. :lol:
 
Ship From Ebola Zone Due In Falmouth
7:00am 21st October 2014

A ship from ebola-hit Sierra Leone is heading to Falmouth.
The Gypsum Centennial is due into the docks for a two week refit next month.
The cargo carrier will arrive in November for one million pounds worth of work.

The captain will be asked whether any of his crew is unwell before it is allowed in and officials insist there is no risk to the workforce or to the town.
It comes after its sister ship underwent work back in June without a problem.

Peter Child from A&P told ITV's The Westcountry Tonight: "It will obviously cross people's minds but, just like everywhere else in the UK, we're following government guidelines.
"If it's safe to fly in from Africa then it's obviously safe to come in by ship.
"As we understand it ebola is transferred by bodily fluids, so long as there's no contact and as long as you follow all the precautions. All these ships are fully aware of what is happening out in Africa."

Only a few days ago the docks were loading supplies onto RFA Argus, whose Cornish crew are on their way to Sierra Leone with orders to try to stop the killer disease spreading.

http://www.piratefm.co.uk/news/latest-n ... -falmouth/
 
Make that TWO ships...

Two ships set to dock in Falmouth from Ebola stricken Sierra Leone
First published Monday 20 October 2014
Last updated 2 minutes ago.
by Jonathan Millar

The Packet can reveal that two ships are due to dock in Falmouth next month after coming from Ebola hit Sierra Leone.
Falmouth has already found itself at the heart of news coverage of the disease after the RFA Argus set sail from the port on a mercy mission to West Africa.

One of the ships is understood to be the Gypsum Centennial, a self discharging bulk carrier owned by a company called Beltships, currently off Freetown in Sierra Leone, a country at the heart of the outbreak.
The ship is due in November for repair work at A&P after the company won a repair contract.
The second ship has not been named.

The information that the port was expecting ships from countries at the heart of the deadly outbreak came from an anonymous source, who expressed concern over the level of preparation, with questions raised over whether doctors had been informed, and whether adaquate steps had been taken.

A spokesman for Public Health England said: "Public Health England can confirm it is aware of two ships due to arrive into Falmouth from Sierra Leone in mid-November.
“Updated guidance has been issued to seaports; this guidance is constantly under review and we will look to provide further advice and support to seaports as required.

“As is standard procedure, the captain has a duty to notify the Port Health Authority if anyone on board is unwell.
“Appropriate measures will be planned and taken by Public Health England closer to the arrival of the ships.”

...

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11543291.Two_ships_set_to_dock_in_Falmouth_from_Ebola_stricken_Sierra_Leone/?ref=mr
 
not so much docking but continuing forward until they crash into the shore? :shock:
 
Frideswide said:
not so much docking but continuing forward until they crash into the shore? :shock:

Rynner is used to wrecking ships, he'll guide them in.
 
Frideswide said:
not so much docking but continuing forward until they crash into the shore? :shock:

As hoardes of red eyed, Ebola infected Africans swarm and scurry over ther rocks and disappear into the tranquil, green countryside, biting anything that stands still and having unprotected sex with our fair maidens.

I'm ringing the Daily Mail right now!
 
Ringo_ said:
As hoardes of red eyed, Ebola infected Africans swarm and scurry over ther rocks and disappear into the tranquil, green countryside, biting anything that stands still and having unprotected sex with our fair maidens.

I'm ringing the Daily Mail right now!
Some local women have already written to the PM about it!

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11 ... la/?ref=mr
 
rynner2 said:
Ringo_ said:
As hoardes of red eyed, Ebola infected Africans swarm and scurry over ther rocks and disappear into the tranquil, green countryside, biting anything that stands still and having unprotected sex with our fair maidens.

I'm ringing the Daily Mail right now!
Some local women have already written to the PM about it!

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11 ... la/?ref=mr

Save the last bullet for yourself!
 
Anthropologists taking ebola ‘preppers’ with a grain of salt

With the closest known US cases of ebola diagnosed about 160 miles away in Dallas, Cary Griffin, from Huntsville, Texas is taking no chances.

If, as the former prison officer fears, the virus spreads to hundreds of people, Griffin is headed to the woods.

“I’ll do what the English royalty did to survive the bubonic plague,” Griffin said, referring to King Charles II’s flight to the countryside during the Great Plague of London in 1665-66. “I’m going into the country.”

Griffin, 27, is among a growing if loosely-defined segment of Americans, known as “preppers”, who plan, train and stockpile in preparation for a natural calamity or societal breakdown.

Preppers are at the extreme edge of concern over ebola, which has led to a series of false alarms driven by fear. Government efforts to stop the virus spreading from the three worst-hit West African countries, where more than 4,500 have died, include some travel restrictions and enhanced screening at airports.

Chad Huddleston, an anthropologist at the University of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, who studies preppers, estimates their numbers in the US in the low hundreds of thousands. The virus was diagnosed in a Liberian visitor who was infected in his home country and two nurses who treated him at a Dallas, Texas hospital when he was dying and at his most contagious. Both nurses have been moved out of the state for treatment in hospitals equipped to treat ebola patients ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/anth ... 93528.html
 
Ebola crisis: Mali confirms first infection case

The Malian government has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.
It said a two-year-old girl had tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus. Reports say she recently returned from the neighbouring Guinea.

More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola - mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - since March.

Meanwhile, an international team of scientists has been set up to determine the effectiveness of using the blood of Ebola survivors as a treatment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29750723
 
New York now:

Ebola outbreak: New York doctor Craig Spencer tests positive


A New York doctor who recently returned from Ebola-hit Guinea in West Africa has tested positive for the disease.

Dr Craig Spencer, who treated Ebola patients while working for the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), came down with a fever on Thursday, days after his return, officials say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29751495

It surprises me that medica returning from treating ebola victims are not automatically quarantined TBH.
 
An internet real estate entrepreneur, who held on to Ebola.com for six years, has reportedly sold it for $200,000 (£124,000).

Jon Schultz’s Blue String Ventures capitalises on the popularity and demand of high profile domain names – investing in them to sell on at a later date at a higher price.

Blue String Ventures bought Ebola.com in 2008 for $13,500 and earlier this month Mr Schultz, who also owns birdflu.com and H1N1.com (Swine Flu), had claimed that a “reasonable” offer would be around the $150,000 mark, considering the website is bringing in 5,000 page views each day. ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 18889.html
 
COMMENTARY: Health workers need optimal respiratory protection for Ebola

The precautionary principle—that any action designed to reduce risk should not await scientific certainty—compels the use of respiratory protection for a pathogen like Ebola virus that has:

No proven pre- or post-exposure treatment modalities
A high case-fatality rate
Unclear modes of transmission

We believe there is scientific and epidemiologic evidence that Ebola virus has the potential to be transmitted via infectious aerosol particles both near and at a distance from infected patients, which means that healthcare workers should be wearing respirators, not facemasks.

The minimum level of protection in high-risk settings should be a respirator with an assigned protection factor greater than 10. A powered air-purifying respirator (PAPR) with a hood or helmet offers many advantages over an N95 filtering facepiece or similar respirator, being more protective, comfortable, and cost-effective in the long run.

link
 
One damn thing after another...

Fears that Ebola crisis will set back malaria fight
By Jane Dreaper, Health correspondent, BBC News

A leading malaria control expert has said efforts to contain the disease may be jeopardised by the Ebola crisis.
Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, who heads the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, said after visiting west Africa: "Understandably, all the health workers' attention is on Ebola."
Children's wards which used to be full of malaria patients were becoming "ghost areas," she added.

In 2012, malaria killed 7,000 people in the three countries worst hit by Ebola.
Most of these will have been young children - although malaria is curable.
The disease caused almost 4,000 deaths in Sierra Leone in 2012 - as well as around 2,000 deaths in Liberia and approximately 1,000 in Guinea.

Now the three countries are wrestling with the Ebola virus and Dr Nafo-Traoré said she feared that recent gains in preventing malaria could be threatened by the crisis.
She said: "These countries have previously been really hit by malaria. But five years ago, it was even worse - the deaths were double.
"We all agree that no child should die from malaria, because we have the tools to prevent and treat it.
"But now, understandably, all the health workers' attention is on Ebola.

"We used to see hospital beds with three children in them at a time, because there was not enough space.
"Now those paediatric wards are becoming ghost areas, because of the lack of manpower there.
"So we don't know who has malaria, and who is dying from it.

"Even if the situation is at the same level as last year, that was still very bad in those countries. We're really concerned that Ebola will cause a setback to the efforts on malaria.
"And there's a lack of trust and confidence in health workers. There's still a feeling it's them who are bringing the virus to people."

RBM is a partnership of more than 500 organisations. It was formed 16 years ago to co-ordinate global efforts against malaria.

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29756066
 
This GIF Shows Just How Quickly Ebola Spread Across Liberia
In late May, there was one case in Liberia. Now there are thousands.

When Ebola came to Liberia on March 22, it was a serious problem—not an existential threat to the entire country. Twelve people fell ill, and 11 of them died. By the end of April, the outbreak seemed to have run its course. But when the virus returned in late May, it moved more swiftly, spreading to 5 of Liberia's 15 counties by July. By early August, a majority of the counties had been affected. ...

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/ ... er-liberia
 
UK ship with Ebola aid docks in Sierra Leone

A UK ship has arrived in Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak in the West African country.
RFA Argus is carrying food, medical equipment and pick-up trucks, to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres going.
Also on board are doctors, nurses and military personnel. The ship is currently docked in Freetown.

Ebola has killed almost 5,000 people and infected more than 10,000 in West Africa since the start of the year.

It set sail from Falmouth in Cornwall on 17 October.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29836657
 
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has said discrimination against aid workers who return home from the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "unacceptable".

Strict quarantine rules are hampering aid efforts when more health workers are needed in order to deal with the crisis, he told BBC News in Nairobi.

International efforts have been insufficient but are now "catching up", the UN secretary general added. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29850416
 
Code:
Young children sit on the laps of medical staff, watching intently as a briefing describes the dangers of Ebola. Foreigners and citizens arriving at the capital’s airport are held in quarantine for weeks. Tourists are banned outright.

The world’s most draconian measures against the disease have been imposed not in the worst-affected west African countries, nor their neighbours, but in North Korea, thousands of miles from the outbreak.

Kim is on the case!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/n ... reat-ebola
 
Something odd going on here:

Security guard banned from working at docks over Ebola fears
First published 07:00 Thursday 6 November 2014in News
Last updated 1 hour ago.

A PRIVATE security guard employed to cover shifts at Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth was banned from returning to work after a three week holiday in Nigeria over fears he might have caught the Ebola virus, writes Natasha Swift.

Security officer Sam Ayodele Ogunnoiki came back from a three-week holiday in the African country — officially declared free of the deadly virus — on Saturday to find a letter from his boss informing him that several members of staff had raised concerns about working with him following his trip.

Mr Ogunnoiki, who has worked for St Austell based Stout Security LTD for eight years, was told by director Trevor Mannell that, to allay colleagues’ fears that he was carrying the Ebola virus back with him, he could not allow him to return to work until he had been back in the UK for at least three weeks.

The letter told Mr Ogunnoiki: “I have spoken to you and expressed my very deep concerns about your trip to Nigeria.
“Several members of staff have now voiced their concerns about the possibility of your carrying the Ebola virus back with you and have made it very clear that they are extremely reluctant to work with you on your return.
“One member of staff has even written a clear and concise letter stating the concerns of your work colleagues.
“In this case, I have to support their concerns — especially as I have already voiced them personally to you. In order to allay any fears that you are a carrier for this deadly virus, I feel I cannot allow you to return to work until you have been back in the United Kingdom for three weeks — which is the incubation period.

“I must also request that you visit your doctor on your return and get a clean bill of health before you can start work with us.
“I am very sorry about this Sam, but everyone works in close proximity together and I have to put the concerns of the majority first.”

Nigeria was declared disease-free on October 20 after a 42-day waiting period following a small outbreak of 20 cases of Ebola, which saw eight deaths.
...

Mr Ogunnoiki, from St Blazey Gate, described his employer’s dramatic move as “unbelievable” and said he had been tested in Nigeria for the disease before leaving the country, which had come back negative.
He said his wife, who is employed by the same company, had been allowed to work despite having been in contact with him since he returned back from Nigeria — which made no sense.

“It’s just discrimination,” said Mr Ogunnoiki. “I have worked at Stout since moving to Cornwall in 2006 when I married my wife, who is English.
“I went to the Port Health Authority and they told me there was no problem with visiting my mother in Nigeria so I went and came back on Saturday. I then got the letter and a text from Mr Mannell saying he couldn’t allow me to return to work in case I had Ebola.
“I was scanned for Ebola in Nigeria and everything came back fine. But my boss told me I must be in quarantine for 21 days and cannot come to work.
“Nigeria does not have Ebola but he said I have to be cleared. There is this stigma surrounding me now. It’s just ignorance and a nightmare because I cannot work.

“I’m a British citizen. My wife does the same job as me and I saw her at the weekend and she has been allowed to work, but if she has been in contact with me she would have Ebola, too. There is no justification for this at all.”

A spokesman from Falmouth and Truro Port Health Authority confirmed to the Voice that no restrictions had been placed on Mr Ogunnoiki as Nigeria had been declared Ebola-free last month.
They said: “A gentleman who has just returned from Nigeria contacted us with an enquiry and asked if we are imposing any requirements on him. We said Nigeria is free of Ebola, so the answer is no.”

But defending his decision to ban Mr Ogunnoiki from working, Mr Mannell said: “I did send Sam a letter saying anyone returning from any African countries for safety reasons cannot work for three weeks afterwards.
“I know Nigeria is Ebola-free but I don’t know where he’s travelled. My problem is that Pendennis, which I have a contract with, sent me an email saying they cannot have anyone working there that’s been in contact with Sam.
“It’s causing me a problem because I have got so much work down there and I need Sam to work.”

Mr Mannell also confirmed that Mr Ogunnoiki’s wife had been allowed to work, but said he did not know if she would be able to now.
He added: “I have to be so careful with this and securing my work at Pendennis as they said they did not want him working or anyone else who’s been in contact. I am taking legal advice and have told Sam to do the same.”

A spokesman from Pendennis Shipyard denied sending an email to Mr Mannell telling him that Mr Ogunnoiki and anyone who had worked with him from Stout Security could not work at the site.
They said: “This really seems like an issue between Stout and their employee. We haven’t made a decision or taken any action that implies a problem at all.
“This is purely between Stout and their employee. Stout are a sub-contractor for us and other people on the docks. This has nothing to do with us.”

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11 ... rs/?ref=mr
 
And a quick follow-up:

Pendennis Shipyard senior management says it knew nothing about security guard ban over Ebola fears
First published 11:30 Thursday 6 November 2014

PENDENNIS Shipyard says that senior management knew nothing about a security guard who was told by his employer that he could no longer work at the docks over fears he might have Ebola.

The company says it has disciplined an employee and apologised to Sam Ogunnoiki who was told by his employer Stout Security that he could not return to work at the docks for three weeks following a holiday in Nigeria.

A statement from Pendennis issued today said: “Pendennis wishes to clarify that the senior management at the yard knew nothing about the situation between Stout Security and its employee, Mr Sam Ogunnoiki, until it was highlighted in the media earlier this week.
We have now conducted a thorough internal investigation and as a result we have disciplined an employee who acted without authority and without consulting senior management or taken advice from our Occupational Health Nurse.

“We apologise for any offence or any inconvenience this may have caused Sam Ogunnoiki and we have no problem with him resuming his duties within Pendennis if he is so allocated here by Stout Security.
“We do not support or endorse the action taken by his employer.”

Mr Ogunnoiki from St Blazey Gate came back from a three-week holiday in the African country — officially declared free of the deadly virus — on Saturday to find a letter from his boss informing him that several members of staff had raised concerns about working with him following his trip.

Mr Ogunnoiki, who has worked for St Austell based Stout Security LTD for eight years, was told by director Trevor Mannell that, to allay colleagues’ fears that he was carrying the Ebola virus back with him, he could not allow him to return to work until he had been back in the UK for at least three weeks.

http://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/fp ... ola_fears/
 
Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission

Christopher J. M. Whitty and colleagues explain why the United Kingdom is funding many small community centres to isolate suspected cases in Sierra Leone.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is larger than all previous Ebola outbreaks combined, and is still expanding1. With a death toll in the thousands, and mortality at around 70%, it has undermined fragile health-care systems by filling hospitals with highly infectious patients and killing health workers.

Vaccines and drugs would offer a complementary approach to control and they must be fast tracked. But these medicines are not available for immediate widespread use. To quell this unprecedented outbreak, we have to use methods that have not been tested.

Experience from past outbreaks has established reliable methods to control transmission in hospitals and at funerals of people who die from Ebola — two of the three main venues for transmission (see ‘Hospitals and funerals’). These efforts remain essential, and the scientific and operational strands must complement one another. ...

http://www.nature.com/news/infectious-d ... on-1.16298
 
Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo: A new strain of the virus

Date: November 7, 2014

Source: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)

Summary:
While an Ebola epidemic has been raging in West Africa since March 2014, an outbreak of this hemorrhagic fever occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in August, leaving fears over the virus' spread to Central Africa. A new study confirms that it is an Ebola epidemic. However, this particular epidemic is due to a local strain of the virus, different from the one rife in the West of the continent. While this result shows the two epidemics are not linked, it illustrates the speed at which the disease has emerged. It is therefore urgent that we understand just how the disease is spread.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 111003.htm
 
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