outbreak of new Ebola strain

[Ben D]

Picking up fast in Monrovia.

MONROVIA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Ebola virus has killed 268 people in Liberia including 37 healthcare workers, Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services Tolbert Nyenswah said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, nurses and health workers has abandoned most health facilities in the country. A Xinhua reporter in the capital city of Monrovia said a dead body is found on the streets almost everyday.

Sierra Leone observes one day stay at home

FREETOWN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Freetown, the capital and the entire Sierra Leone was on Monday like a "ghost town" as residents of the west african state observed a one day "Stay Home" proclaimed by the President for people to "reflect, pray and educate" family members on the Ebola virus.

All shops and offices were closed for stock taking on the disease, traffic was at a stand still with no vehicle movement except essential staffs who were going around sensitizing the people on the dangers of the disease. All radio stations throughout the country including the national broadcaster dedicated the entire day on educating and sensitizing its listeners on the disease.

In a radio broadcast on Monday, the President reminded his compatriots that "I declared today a national stay at home day for family reflection, education and prayers on the outbreak of ebola.

He said "we set up this day because of our conviction that as a nation of families, the family is the key to our fight against the ebola disease". He said as a government they have scaled up the fight and so asked his compatriots to scale his or her effort against the ebola disease.

"In this fight if every single individual or community or town fails to act, the risk to our society will increase." This is why the Head of State urged his people that whoever is informed must "educate every other member of the family".

He went further to say "it is very necessary to get those with the virus to the treatment center not only to prevent others from contracting the virus but also increases their chances of survival".

To see the effect of the proclamation by the President, Xinhua together with other correspondents hired a vehicle to the headquarter of the south, Bo, and observed that the 260 kilometres was completely abandoned, there was no vehicle on the road except health workers or small gatherings of four or five as the car went by.

..and not a word of advice about bats as the probable source....

Scientists now believe that bats are the natural reservoir for the virus, and that apes and humans catch it from eating food that bats have drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths.

..from the NYT article...

[coffin_dodger]

Liberia declares state of emergency over Ebola virus BBC News 7 Aug 2014

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has declared a state of emergency as the country grapples with an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Speaking on national television she said some civil liberties might have to be suspended.

cont: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-28684561

[coffin_dodger]

Ebola spreads to Nigeria. Goverment declares emergency. Washington Post 7 Aug 2014

Nigeria’s health minister has declared a health emergency as the deadly Ebola virus gained a foothold in Africa’s most populous nation, according to news reports.
“This is a national emergency. Everyone in the world today is at risk. The experience of Nigeria opens the eyes of the world,” Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu told the country’s House of Representatives.

cont: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/07/ebola-spreads-to-nigeria-goverment-declares-emergency/

[coffin_dodger]

Ebola crisis: Liberia and Sierra Leone blockades go up. BBC News 7 Aug 2014

Liberian soldiers have set up a blockade stopping people from western regions affected by the Ebola outbreak from entering the capital, Monrovia.

cont: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28690799

[Hunter]

If this gets in to LAGOS, it could get ugly fast. Most people dont realize that Lagos, Liberia has a population of 21 MILLION people. Take the entire state of Texas and cram it in to one city and take away sanitation and good medical care and you can see why an Ebola outbreak there would be a problem.

Also, I know quite a bit about Ebola and there is no real threat it would ever be a big problem here in the States or even Europe, there could be small pockets of outbreaks but we could control it pretty quickly here since it is not (yet and likely never could be) airborne and requires close contact and exchange of body fluids to become infected.

The main problem in West Africa seems to be that they are very hands on with their dead, they hug and hold and bathe the dead bodies as part of their tradition and they do so with no protective gear and a dead ebola body is the most contagious of all, this is one reason among several others, that it is spreading so fast there and why it likely would not spread in such a way here in the States.

Another problem is the food they eat, one of the main sources of protein for these folks is bushmeat, particularly FRUIT BATS AND MONKEYS. Fruit Bats are known to be the natural reservoir species for ebolavirus, they do not get sick from it but do carry it and pass it along among eachother. Monkeys are also known to carry it and they do, like us, become sick from it. The issue here being not so much eating the meat of an infected animal as cooking and high heat does kill it, but those who hunt the animals, clean/gut them and process the meat become infected with the exchange of body fluids and hunting bushmeat and bushmeat processing is like the number one industry in some of these areas.

The worst part is that even the doctors and nurses are dying from it while trying to help the infected.

Nonetheless, it is scary as shit what is happening, it is a horrible nightmarish virus that basically turns the body in to mashed potatoes.

[stefano]

There have been cases in Nigeria, apparently spread from the Liberian doctor who died there on July 25. There have been six confirmed cases and one (other) death, on Tuesday. Government is taking it very seriously but yeah, if it starts spreading among people that they haven't got under surveillance it could be more serious than in the other three countries combined.

[coffin_dodger]

Hemorrhaging from orifices has to be one of the all-time horrors of nature.

I'll be skipping the youtube vids of that, should this event gain traction.

[Hunter]

Picking up fast in Monrovia.

MONROVIA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Ebola virus has killed 268 people in Liberia including 37 healthcare workers, Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services Tolbert Nyenswah said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, nurses and health workers has abandoned most health facilities in the country. A Xinhua reporter in the capital city of Monrovia said a dead body is found on the streets almost everyday.

Sierra Leone observes one day stay at home

FREETOWN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Freetown, the capital and the entire Sierra Leone was on Monday like a "ghost town" as residents of the west african state observed a one day "Stay Home" proclaimed by the President for people to "reflect, pray and educate" family members on the Ebola virus.

All shops and offices were closed for stock taking on the disease, traffic was at a stand still with no vehicle movement except essential staffs who were going around sensitizing the people on the dangers of the disease. All radio stations throughout the country including the national broadcaster dedicated the entire day on educating and sensitizing its listeners on the disease.

In a radio broadcast on Monday, the President reminded his compatriots that "I declared today a national stay at home day for family reflection, education and prayers on the outbreak of ebola.

He said "we set up this day because of our conviction that as a nation of families, the family is the key to our fight against the ebola disease". He said as a government they have scaled up the fight and so asked his compatriots to scale his or her effort against the ebola disease.

"In this fight if every single individual or community or town fails to act, the risk to our society will increase." This is why the Head of State urged his people that whoever is informed must "educate every other member of the family".

He went further to say "it is very necessary to get those with the virus to the treatment center not only to prevent others from contracting the virus but also increases their chances of survival".

To see the effect of the proclamation by the President, Xinhua together with other correspondents hired a vehicle to the headquarter of the south, Bo, and observed that the 260 kilometres was completely abandoned, there was no vehicle on the road except health workers or small gatherings of four or five as the car went by.

..and not a word of advice about bats as the probable source....

Scientists now believe that bats are the natural reservoir for the virus, and that apes and humans catch it from eating food that bats have drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths.

..from the NYT article...

Also the fruit bats themselves are one of the most sought after and popular type of meat to eat in this area, so it isnt just eating food they drooled on or defecated on but those who hunt these bats and clean and gut them are becoming infected. There is a whole very large industry around fruit bat hunting and meat production. Of course we dont know for sure what is causing this outbreak or how it started but this is one theory. Also worth noting that the current outbreak is the the Zaire ebolavirus strain (the worst one), only seen one other time in the Congo area, 2000+ miles away from where it is now. Nobody yet knows how it came this far, likely fruit bat migration.

[Hunter]

Hemorrhaging from orifices has to be one of the all-time horrors of nature.

I'll be skipping the youtube vids of that, should this event gain traction.

Yes this is how the virus comes out to find a new host and the hemorrhaging happens long after they are dead, so you have a tradition where these people hug, hold and bathe their dead and this is likely one of the things fueling the outbreak. Many people there also do not believe ebola is real, they think the government, black magic and western medicine is behind it so they dont pay much attention when you tell them to stop these practices.

[Hunter]

There have been cases in Nigeria, apparently spread from the Liberian doctor who died there on July 25. There have been six confirmed cases and one (other) death, on Tuesday. Government is taking it very seriously but yeah, if it starts spreading among people that they haven't got under surveillance it could be more serious than in the other three countries combined.

Add to the fact that families are busting infected family members out of hospitals to take them to natural healers in the villages and you can see what a mess it is. It also takes up to 21 days to show symptoms and it can be contagious during this period so you could come in to contact with a lot of people in 21 days and not know you have it. This is one reason to believe that in the next 30 days the cases may double or triple or more as more and more people being infected now start to show symptoms.

[stefano]

(Reuters) - A hospital in Benin is treating a Nigerian man suspected of having contracted Ebola and authorities have sent a sample of his blood to Senegal for testing, Health Minister Dorothée Gazard said on state television on Thursday.

The case is unconfirmed but Gazard's announcement triggered widespread fears in the capital Cotonou. Many people said they would stock up on food and stop eating at popular roadside food stalls to avoid possible infection, witnesses said.

This kind of report from Ivory Coast would be pretty worrying too, and could emerge soon.

[Hunter]

Just heard a case confirmed in TORONTO anyone else seeing this? Yikes.

[Hunter]

Saw this post over at Reddit this guy is a well known poster and a doctor, just to ease some fears about a major outbreak coming to the West and other little known facts about Ebola:

This was in a thread saying the WHO has declared Ebola an international health emergency.

http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comme ... al_health/


Posted by Shaqsquatch:


Hi, I'm an Epidemiologist with a particular interest in infectious disease (and lots of past research experience on another hemorrhagic fever), and I'm going to try to address some of the misinformation rampant in this thread.
The reproductive number of Ebola is not 4, it's been calculated around 1.8, which is relatively low especially when you consider the Ro is a factor of the environment from the outbreaks in this study. The reproductive number in a first world environment would be much lower.
For those not aware, the basic reproductive number is a theoretical figure for a disease outbreak that refers to the average number of new infections one infected person will produce. The higher it goes the worse it is, anything below 1 means the disease will not spread. The closer to 1, the easier it is to control a disease.

An infected person is not infectious during the incubation period per the WHO:
The incubation period, or the time interval from infection to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days. The patients become contagious once they begin to show symptoms. They are not contagious during the incubation period.

Aerosolized transmission has only been observed in special laboratory conditions so while it is technically possible if modified and specially delivered, Ebola will not transmit through sneezes and coughs.

The long post-infection transmission period is a real concern, but were people in the US or other first-world countries to be infected, proper quarantine and isolation procedures would be taken even after the symptoms disappear. Doctors don't suddenly forget that a person is potentially infectious after symptoms fade and send a person on their merry way.

Ebola is absolutely a serious threat for Western Africa and this warning indicates that it poses a threat to the rest of Africa and possibly places in the Middle East. However, the worries about it becoming a threat in the US because of the patients brought to the CDC or any kind of global pandemic are simply fear-mongering at best.

The primary problems facing the spread in Africa right now are poor sanitary conditions and mistrust of foreign doctors coupled with a belief in homeopathic remedies causing the infected to not seek help and also one of the biggest problems right now is how they handle their dead, they are very hands on with those who die, they touch them, hold them etc, this is a major problem and one of the big reasons it is spreading so fast over there.


"International Health Emergency" doesn't mean "prepare for a global pandemic". There is certainly a massive threat to the neighboring African countries and possibly parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia if it makes its way far enough east.
Barring a very unlikely set of mutations though, Ebola's potential for a global pandemic or even any sort of meaningful spread in first world countries is very low.

While I'm glad people are finally starting to pay attention to the infectious disease problems that still plague many third world nations, they're looking at it in the wrong way. "What if it happens to us?" as opposed to "What can we do to help those already affected?", which is pretty sad.

If you really want to help and aren't a doctor yourself, consider donations to groups that do outreach work in treating infectious disease, such as The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, International Red Cross/Red Crescent, the WHO itself and many others.
Ebola is grabbing headlines but there are many infectious diseases that kill more on a day to day basis that could be preventable by modern sanitation and remain rampant in third world nations because the richer countries don't want to dedicate resources to something that's not a problem for them.

Even humanitarian groups that are not strictly health related but instead provide clean water and similar aid to third world countries can have significant impact on infectious disease spread (as many of the infectious diseases can be simply prevented by modern sanitation and access to clean water). There are many groups in this area too, such as The Water Project, Direct Relief International, and many others.

[stefano]

Still only suspected cases, but in two new countries...

Senegal reports suspected Ebola infection

DAKAR, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- A Malian national living in northern Senegal has been quarantined in a hospital due to suspected Ebola symptoms, Senegalese News Agency reported Saturday.

The 27-year-old patient had just returned to the northern city of Ourossogui from a trip to Mali, where he was in contact with nationals of Guinea, said the head doctor of the local medical team, adding samples have been sent to Dakar for analysis and the results could be available within 48 hours.

Suspected Ebola cases under scrutiny in Ghana: authority

ACCRA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Health authority in Ghana said it is awaiting test results of four new suspected Ebola cases in the country.

The first is a Burkina Faso national with nose bleeding and fever who was rushed across boarder to the northeastern Bawku town, and died later.

Fears are that he may have had close contact with many Ghanaian port and medical officials.

The body had since been sent back to Burkina Faso, but blood samples are being tested to ascertain the ailment.

The other three being quarantined at the Nsawam government hospital near the capital. Official sources said one of them was showing symptoms of the deadly ebola virus disease.

[Hunter]

Ebola paitient zero was a toddler according to nyt:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world ... -spot&_r=1

Patient Zero in the Ebola outbreak, researchers suspect, was a 2-year-old boy who died on Dec. 6, just a few days after falling ill in a village in Guéckédou, in southeastern Guinea. Bordering Sierra Leone and Liberia, Guéckédou is at the intersection of three nations, where the disease found an easy entry point to the region.

A week later, it killed the boy’s mother, then his 3-year-old sister, then his grandmother. All had fever, vomiting and diarrhea, but no one knew what had sickened them.


Two mourners at the grandmother’s funeral took the virus home to their village. A health worker carried it to still another, where he died, as did his doctor. They both infected relatives from other towns. By the time Ebola was recognized, in March, dozens of people had died in eight Guinean communities, and suspected cases were popping up in Liberia and Sierra Leone — three of the world’s poorest countries, recovering from years of political dysfunction and civil war.