MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses.
The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the holding center from other parts of Monrovia, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister, said Sunday.
Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid, said Nyenswah. Once they are located they will be transferred to the Ebola center at Monrovia's largest hospital, he said.
West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. The residents took medical equipment and mattresses and sheets that had bloodstains, he said. Ebola is spread through bodily fluids including blood, vomit, feces and sweat.
"All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients," the official said, adding that he now feared "the whole of West Point will be infected."
Some of the looted items were visibly stained with blood, vomit and excrement, said Richard Kieh, who lives in the area.
The incident creates a new challenge for Liberian health officials who were already struggling to contain the outbreak.
Liberian police restored order to the West Point neighborhood Sunday. Sitting on land between the Montserrado River and the Atlantic Ocean, West Point is home to at least 50,000 people, according to a 2012 survey.
Ebola outbreak in West Africa A Liberian woman holds up a pamphlet with guidance on how to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading, …
Distrust of government runs high in West Point, with rumors regularly circulating that the government plans to clear the slum out entirely.
Though there had been talk of putting West Point under quarantine should Ebola break out there, assistant health minister Nyenswah said Sunday no such step has been taken. "West Point is not yet quarantined as being reported," he said.
Ebola has killed 1,145 people in West Africa, including 413 in Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.
Other countries across Africa are grappling to prevent Ebola's spread with travel restrictions, suspensions of airline flights, public health messages and quarantines.
Nigeria appears to be making progress in containing the disease. The country has 12 confirmed cases of Ebola, all of which stem from direct contact with the Liberian-American man who flew to Nigeria late last month while ill. He infected several health workers before dying.
Since then three others have died in Nigeria from Ebola, according to figures released over the weekend.
One Nigerian doctor has survived the disease and was sent home Saturday night and five others confirmed with Ebola have almost fully recovered, said the Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu in a statement Saturday night.
The most important part of containing the disease is to track all those who had contact with Ebola patients and to closely monitor them in order to quarantine if they show any symptoms. Nigeria had 242 people under surveillance but now 61 have been cleared and released, after completing the 21-day period without showing any signs of Ebola, said the health ministry.
In East Africa, Kenya will bar passengers traveling from the three West African countries badly hit by the Ebola outbreak. The suspension is effective midnight Tuesday for all ports of entry for people traveling from or through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, said Kenya's Health Ministry. Nigeria was not included in the ban, which also allows entry to health professionals and Kenyans returning from those countries.
Following the government's announcement Saturday, Kenya Airways said it would suspend flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Kenya Airways, a major transport provider in Africa flies more than 70 flights a week to West Africa.
Several airlines have already suspended flights to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, including British Airways, Emirates Airlines, Arik Air and ASKY Airlines.
Officials in Cameroon, which borders Nigeria, announced Friday it would suspend all flights from all four Ebola-affected countries. Korean Air announced on Thursday it would temporarily halt its service to Kenya despite the fact there are no cases of Ebola in the country.
3 Ebola suspects at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, INDIA 17 Aug 2014 Times Of India
NEW DELHI: Three persons from Ebola-affected Nigeria, who arrived here Saturday morning, have been admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for screening and treatment if required. The three Nigerians, aged 79, 37 and 4 years had fever and their tests were being done at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Delhi, an official release said here.
In addition to this, a 32-year-old Indian from Durg in Chhattisgarh who returned from Nigeria has been admitted to a hospital in Bhilai. His samples are also being tested at NCDC, the release said. WHO has said air travel, even from Ebola-affected countries, is low-risk for transmission of the disease. WHO has reported a total of 2,127 cases and 1,145 deaths due to Ebola from affected countries.
Ebola: more than a thousand dead now. An unprecedented spread. We’ll look at what it will take to stop it. In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2014, a healthcare worker, right, wears protective gear against the Ebola virus before he enters the Ebola isolation ward at Kenema Government Hospital, in Kenema, the Eastern Province around 300km, (186 miles), from the capital city of Freetown in Sierra Leone. (AP)
In this photo taken on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2014, a healthcare worker, right, wears protective gear against the Ebola virus before he enters the Ebola isolation ward at Kenema Government Hospital, in Kenema, the Eastern Province around 300km, (186 miles), from the capital city of Freetown in Sierra Leone. (AP) More than one thousand people dead, more than two thousand infected. Ebola continues to spread across West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. The worst outbreak in history. And still not contained. Neighboring countries are closing their borders. Airlines canceling their flights. Can these countries contain the spread? Do they have the infrastructure, the resources to stop Ebola? And–without a cure–untested experimental drugs are raising ethical and health concerns. This hour, On Point: The Ebola epidemic and how to stop it.
Guests
Drew Hinshaw, contributing reporter for The Wall Street Journal in West Africa. (@drewfhinshaw)
Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of the center for infection and immunity at Columbia University.
Dr. Anne Atai-Omoruto, doctor treating Ebola in Liberia with the World Health Organization. (@ataiomo)
Dr. Jesse Goodman, director of the center for medical product access, safety and stewardship at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. (@JesseGoodmanMD)
From The Reading List
The Wall Street Journal: WHO Declares Ebola Virus Outbreak Public Health Emergency — “The World Health Organization declared the West African Ebola epidemic that has killed nearly 1,000 people an international public-health emergency. Friday’s WHO declaration represents a call to member states and private donors to boost funding and efforts to battle the worst Ebola outbreak in history, as a surge in cases over the past two days has overwhelmed major aid organizations.”
Bloomberg: First Tests of Ebola Vaccine Appear at Least a Month Away — “The sudden donation of as many as 1,000 doses of a vaccine that hasn’t been tested in humans is creating a conundrum because they could go to healthy people, rather than those already infected. Earlier, the World Health Organization decided that people in West Africa should be allowed access to promising experimental treatments or vaccines.”
Washington Post: Ebola might change the way we think about pharmaceutical innovation — “We don’t have six years to test an Ebola cure. We may only have six months, if we don’t want to risk Ebola transforming from a regional health crisis in Africa into a global health crisis. That’s causing people to rethink what’s causing the long, costly and unwieldy process for bringing new drugs to market. If you think of the drug development pipeline as a huge funnel, then we need more ways to either widen or shorten this funnel.”
I'll be keeping an eye on this case. I'm hoping it will turn out like the New York case. But if it's confirmed Ebola, I'll start taking protective measures.
I experience a lingering cognitive dissonance stemming from many of the news items concerning Ebola. The suspected case in California exemplifies the source of that.
News reports state that this patient is being held in a "negative-pressure room". As in most such stories, this one includes the endlessly-repeated assurance that Ebola can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, and that it is not airborne.
Then why the standard use of negative-pressure environments? Is there concern that surgical gloves and IV needles are going to float out of the room without the negative-pressure? I think not.
I think that environment is in place solely to prevent air from escaping the room.
My understanding is that there's a difference between "airborne" and "aerosol", the latter referring to minute droplets of liquid in which a pathogen is viable.
The term "aerosol" is never used in the repeated assurances concerning method of transmission. Only "airborne". Do the PTB fear panic, and disruption of business as usual, more than they fear a fucking Ebola pandemic?
I would deeply appreciate any insight someone may have to offer about this. My dearest loved ones are currently traveling through multiple international airline hubs.
km artlu » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:13 pm wrote:Do the PTB fear panic, and disruption of business as usual, more than they fear a fucking Ebola pandemic?
I would deeply appreciate any insight someone may have to offer about this. My dearest loved ones are currently traveling through multiple international airline hubs.
I have loved ones in Senegal, I feel you.
I would say that the first sentence I have quoted above nails it eloquently, simply. You are precisely correct.
Worth pointing out that "Disease Control" is not just a matter of fighting epidemics -- a great deal of it is controlling information. This isn't, necessarily, a nefarious occult agenda. This is driven by practical problems. The only way to get people out of a burning theatre safely and efficiently is to never let them know there's a fire.
Edit: Also: panic travels further and faster than Ebola.
km artlu » Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:13 pm wrote:I experience a lingering cognitive dissonance stemming from many of the news items concerning Ebola. The suspected case in California exemplifies the source of that.
News reports state that this patient is being held in a "negative-pressure room". As in most such stories, this one includes the endlessly-repeated assurance that Ebola can only be transmitted through direct contact with bodily fluids, and that it is not airborne.
Then why the standard use of negative-pressure environments? Is there concern that surgical gloves and IV needles are going to float out of the room without the negative-pressure? I think not.
I think that environment is in place solely to prevent air from escaping the room.
My understanding is that there's a difference between "airborne" and "aerosol", the latter referring to minute droplets of liquid in which a pathogen is viable.
The term "aerosol" is never used in the repeated assurances concerning method of transmission. Only "airborne". Do the PTB fear panic, and disruption of business as usual, more than they fear a fucking Ebola pandemic?
I would deeply appreciate any insight someone may have to offer about this. My dearest loved ones are currently traveling through multiple international airline hubs.
Excellent questions. I believe Storm Clouds Gathering provides some insight into the difference between "airborne" and "aerosol", as you put it.
There is something very, very important that the corporate media and public health officials are not telling you regarding the Ebola outbreak in west Africa.
The information I'm about to present here is frightening. There's really no way around that. However, I request that you do your very best to maintain a calm state of mind.
Right now in West Africa the worst Ebola outbreak in history is in full swing and is jumping borders at an alarming rate. Already it has spread to four countries, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and now Nigeria. This latest jump into Nigeria is particularly serious since the infected individual carried the virus by plane to Lagos Nigeria, a city with a population of over 21 million. Doctors without borders has referred to the outbreak as "out of control".
To make matters worse, there is something very, very important that the corporate media and public health officials are not telling you regarding this crisis.
You'll notice if you read virtually any mainstream article on the topic that they make a point of insisting that Ebola is only transferred by physical contact with bodily fluids. This is not true, at all.
A study conducted in 2012 showed that Ebola was able to travel between pigs and monkeys that were in separate cages and were never placed in direct contact.
Though the method of transmission in the study was not officially determined, one of the scientists involved, Dr. Gary Kobinger, from the National Microbiology Laboratory at the Public Health Agency of Canada, told BBC News that he believed that the infection was spread through large droplets that were suspended in the air. "What we suspect is happening is large droplets; they can stay in the air, but not long; they don't go far," he explained. "But they can be absorbed in the airway, and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way."
Translation: Ebola IS an airborne virus.
UPDATE: Someone pointed out that in medical terms, if the virus is transferred through tiny droplets in the air this would technically not be called an "airborne virus". Airborne, in medical terms would mean that the virus has the ability to stay alive without a liquid carrier. On one hand this is a question of semantics, and the point is well taken, but keep in mind that the study did not officially determine how the virus traveled through the air, it merely established that it does travel through the air. Doctor Kobinger's hypothesis regarding droplets of liquid is just that, a hypothesis. For the average person however what needs to be understood is very simple: if you are in a room with someone infected with Ebola, you are not safe, even if you never touch them or their bodily fluids, and this is not what you are being told by the mainstream media. Essentially I am using the word "airborne" as a layman term (which kind of makes sense, since I am a layman in this field).
Now I'm not going to speculate as to whether these so called "journalist" and public health agencies who keep repeating the official line regarding the means of transmission are lying, or are just participating in some massive display of synchronized incompetence, but what I will say, is that this shoddy reporting is most likely getting people killed right now, and may in fact put all of humanity in danger.
How so?
By convincing people that the virus cannot travel through air, important precautions that could reduce the spread of the virus are not being taken. For example the other passengers on the plane that traveled to Lagos, Nigeria were not quarantined.
To put this into context, Ebola kills between 50% and 90% of its victims, so the stakes are very, very high here.
NOTE: We have reported on the fact that Ebola can spread through the air in three separate articles since March of 2014, here, here and here, however the corporate media has continued to misrepresent the vectors of transmission.
This particular strain of Ebola is not Ebola Zaire. This is a new strain, and it may in fact be more dangerous than the Zaire variety. Not because of any difference in the symptoms (the symptoms are identical), but because this new virus seems to be harder to contain. Whether this is due to some characteristic of the virus itself or merely dumb luck is uncertain at this time, but the rate at which this outbreak has extended its range is unprecedented.
The three sequences, each 18,959 nucleotides in length, were identical with the exception of a few polymorphisms at positions 2124 (G→A, synonymous), 2185 (A→G, NP552 glycine→glutamic acid), 2931 (A→G, synonymous), 4340 (C→T, synonymous), 6909 (A→T, sGP291 arginine→tryptophan), and 9923 (T→C, synonymous).
Note that there doesn't yet seem to be a consensus as to what this new strain is called. One study referred to it as "Guinean EBOV", another as "Guinea 2014 EBOV Ebolavirus" and others are still referring to it as Zaire. Given that we can specifically name the points where the virus has mutated, using the old name is misleading.
Right now the question on everyone's minds is whether this virus will spread outside of Africa. Considering the fact that Ebola has a three week incubation period, can travel through the air, and has already hitchhiked onto an international flight, this is a very real possibility. There are some that are downplaying the probability of this outcome, and to be honest, I hope that they are right, but the simple fact of the matter is that these people are basing their assessment on the faulty premise that Ebola is not an airborne virus.
Now the first thing you might be feeling when looking at this situation is a sense of fear and helplessness, and while that's a perfectly normal reaction it's really not helpful. Instead we should be thinking in terms of practical steps we can take to influence the outcome.
One thing we can all do is to start confronting journalists and public officials who keep making false statements regarding the way Ebola spreads. Use the links to the original study, the BBC report from 2012 and this video to put them in their place.
We also need to confront the fact that there isn't a full out, coordinated, international effort to contain this. This is being treated like a sideshow but it has the very real potential to become a main event.
The doctors on the ground in West Africa don't have enough staff or resources to deal with this situation. It is absolutely inexcusable for the U.S. and the E.U. to be investing billions of tax payer dollars into their little power games in Ukraine and Syria (which are both in the process of escalating right now by the way) while Ebola is getting a foothold in Africa. Every available resource should be shifted to West Africa in order to contain and extinguish this epidemic right now.
This is serious. Call them, write them, heckle them in the streets if you have to, but don't allow them to ignore this issue. Make it impossible for them to pretend later that they didn't know.
Now whether or not official policy towards the Ebola crisis changes there are some precautions that you should take right now for yourself and your family.
1. Know where you would go if you needed to leave your home on short notice. If Ebola escapes Africa the last place you want to be is in a densely populated metropolitan area. It may be that the most practical destination for your family would be a rural area near your current home, but if you already have concerns about the government you are living under, and how they may handle a crisis like this, then you might want to start looking at alternatives. Finding an alternative location that suits your family's needs is something that requires a lot of time and research, so don't put this off. The primary characteristics you should be examining in an alternative destination are geography , political environment, climate, population density and visa terms and requirements. Ideally you would want to end up somewhere that is geographically isolated to some degree.
2. If you don't have passports for yourself and each of your dependents, get them now. This is not to say that you should leave your country, but you should have the means to do so. In countries where the Ebola outbreak is underway it is getting harder and harder to exit. Borders are being closed down. Flights are being cut off. This didn't happen right away, but you definitely don't want to be waiting for your passport to show up if Ebola arrives in your city.
3. Know what you would carry with you if you had to leave on short notice. Have those items ready, and have the luggage to carry them. It would be wise to consider buying a pack of surgical masks as part of this.
Now if you think about it, these preparations are wise steps to take regardless of whether the Ebola situation deteriorates or not. Knowing where you would go in an emergency, and having the means to get there on short notice is important for a wide variety of situations. The civilian population of Iraq, Syria, east Ukraine, and Gaza can attest to that.
Whatever you do don't let fear take control of your mind. Take the steps you can take now, monitor the situation calmly, and be prepared to adapt if necessary.
UPDATE: A number of people have requested that I comment on the fact that the Americans infected by Ebola are right now being flown into the U.S. My personal opinion is that this particular move will not lead to the virus getting out. This event is going to be highly scrutinized, and the isolation security should be at max. The real danger isn't in these highly controlled transfers and quarantines, but rather in the ongoing flow of air travel from these regions. Thirty five countries are merely one flight away from an Ebola zone right now.
Why is this random air travel more dangerous?
Because if it gets in when people aren't looking, it can spread before containment measures are put into place.
Also, I would agree with what Wombaticus is saying to buttress your point: CDC is a government agency. The government's primary fear is disruption of business as usual, period. I'll be at an international airport in a couple months. If this Ebola situation is still hairy, I'll take whatever precautions I deem necessary, government pooh-poohing be damned.
"Researchers believe the virus cannot be transmitted through the air. “Because the risk of Ebola transmission on airplanes is so low, WHO does not consider air transport hubs at high risk for further spread of Ebola."
That's the first qualifier I've seen, that "believe". Perhaps a more realistic stance will soon be phasing-in, courtesy of WHO and CDC legal teams.
Thanks to Wombat and SRP for your input; I very much appreciate that.
My dilemma now is whether or not to muster all the influence I may have to try to keep my people on hold in Sweden pending developments. That would be highly disruptive to the flow of their lives, and I don't want to cry wolf on this.
From that study that Storm Clouds Gathering makes such a big thing of: "pigs can generate infectious short range large aerosol droplets more efficiently then other species". Pigs don't host Ebola in West Africa. The point of the study was to evaluate the risk of farmers in the Phillipines getting Ebola from their livestock. The fact that sick pigs infected macaques kept in the same room for more than a week has no effective bearing on the risk of aerosol transmission between humans on a plane or something.
I think fear of plagues is like fear of snakes or fear of the dark - it's a survival mechanism that we evolved over millions of years, and our reaction to plagues is still more a limbic one than rational. Airports, too - it's completely abnormal, from the point of view of a mammal that has lived in small groups for the near-entirety of its evolutionary history, to be surrounded by hundreds of strangers.
Echoing the feelings in this thread - my wife just went to Morocco, and before she left everyone here went "Shit, Morocco, aren't you scared of Ebola?" When she was about to come back, everyone that side went "Shit, South Africa, aren't you scared of Ebola?" Ha.
70 die from illness in Congo, WHO denies Ebola link Published August 21, 2014
At least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, denying that the illness was Ebola.
A WHO report dated Thursday and seen by Reuters said that 592 people had contracted the disease, of whom 70 died. Five health care workers, including one doctor, are among the dead.
"This is not Ebola," a WHO spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Thursday.
A local priest who asked not to be named said that the illness had affected several villages and estimated that the death toll was over 100 people.
Kinshasa sent its health minister, Felix Kabange Numbi, and a team of experts on Wednesday to the region after reports of several deaths.
The outbreak began in the remote jungle province of Equateur where the first case of Ebola was reported in 1976, prompting speculation that it was the same illness that has killed more than 1,350 people in an outbreak now raging in West Africa.
Symptoms of the two diseases are similar; they include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal bleeding. But the fatality rate for this outbreak of haemorrhagic gastroenteritis is much lower than the West Africa Ebola outbreak, at around 12 percent versus close to 60 percent.
The WHO, which sent representatives to the area on Wednesday together with the Congolese team of experts, said four samples would be flown from the town of Boende on Friday to the capital Kinshasa for further testing.
Medical charity MSF said it had also sent a team to Equateur province to assess the situation. MSF said it was too early to confirm what the disease was.
The Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi on 31/05/2013 in Kinshasa, during the official launch ceremony of the acceleration of the reduction of maternal mortality and child in the DRC framework. Radio Okapi / Ph. John Bompengo
An unidentified disease has killed 65 people in about 4 weeks in the area of health Djera, Tshuapa district, 25 kilometers Boende-center in the province of Ecuador. The Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi, the acting governor of Ecuador, Sébastien Impeto, as well as experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived Wednesday, August 20 at Boende to investigate this disease, and care for patients. Health sources on the ground say they have been alerted since July on a contagious disease that affects three areas of health Wetsikengo, Lokalia and Wafanya in Boende territory. The disease is characterized by severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. According to the same health sources, four nurses, who cared for the sick, are among the victims. Moreover, the disease would progress to the locality of Wetsikengo near Tshuapa River. Teams of WHO and the health zone Boende, rushed to the scene, took samples which are being analyzed at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa. Pending the results of the examinations, the Minister Felix Kabange Numbi pledged to send another team of doctors in the health area of Djera, about twenty miles of Boende. This mission will still resample that will, from this weekend, to have more details on this illness, he said.
