outbreak of new Ebola strain

[Hunter]

Saw this in an article, this is the sort of thing that should not happen:

According to Dr. Yeiah, one of the Ebola victims, a lab technician, Steven Blamah, contracted the virus along with the other 11 other
nurses (not named) from one of their late colleagues, John Quaye. The late Mr. Quaye worked with another public health facility in Kakata, but died recently of Ebola.
"After contracting the virus, the late Quaye concealed the information from his colleagues, and was working alongside them, while secretly treating suspected patients of the virus at the same time at his private clinic and also at his residence."
The late Mr. Quaye's wife and sister (not named) are also down with the virus and are refusing to show up at the hospital, after doctors had advised them to do so following Quaye's death.


My understanding is one of the reasons these folks are afraid of western doctors, hospitals and medicines is because there is a long history of doctors using them for pharmaceutical testing and many of them believe ebola is the result of that.

They don't trust westerners. They don't think its a virus. They think its poisoning from western medicine. The west did/does some shitty things to Africa. Why would they trust us? I wouldn't.

[Col. Quisp]

Lagos is in Nigeria, not Liberia.

[Col. Quisp]

A Romanian citizen who returned from Nigeria and was displaying symptoms of an Ebola virus infection has been quarantined at an infectious diseases hospital in the capital Bucharest on Sunday [today], AFP reported.
The 51-year-old man, who came back from Nigeria on July 25, sought medical aid today.
He has a fever, bloody diarrhoea and is dehydrated.

http://www.focus-fen.net/news/2014/08/1 ... unday.html

[Col. Quisp]

HT Pixie, at Pandemic Flu Information forum

Medical Maven wrote:
I am thinking that tertiary case was possibly the spread of the virus by the hand of the nurse to that unfortunate patient. The nurse may have not even been symptomatic yet.

Here's the problem. An Ebola victim is not supposed to be able to spread the virus until they are symptomatic.

Was she only lightly symptomatic? That's a problem too. Sawyer had contact with his sister the day before she died, when her viral load was no doubt extremely high. But the nurse who transferred the virus to her pregnant patient was obviously well enough to work, and was transmitting. This situation seems to mirror that of Dr. Brantley and Nancy Writebol. A nurse at their hospital came to work on a Monday and seemed fine. She died two days later, if I recall correctly. Monotreme pointed out that even Dr. Brantley, a highly experienced Ebola physician, could not discern that a co-worker was sick, and infectious.

These things aren't supposed to be able to happen with Ebola. But this is not classic Ebola. It is New Ebola.

Medical Maven wrote:
The further we go into this pandemic the more I think that this is one very contagious subclade.

It seems to be exactly that. The reassurances that Ebola is not easily transmitted seem….misplaced.

On the ground in Lagos, the health care workers and attendants who interacted with Sawyer know exactly the level of interaction they had with the patient. If people who had very minimal interaction with Sawyer have become infected, word of that will spread fast throughout the medical community. This may be the cause of medical workers refusing to treat the quarantined patients (if rumors are true) and might account for the report that only a single WHO person is treating the affected patients in Lagos.

I believe this new Ebola DOES pose a threat to everyone and is more easily transmitted than we are being led to believe. I am further outraged that one of Africa's leading doctors, hailed as a 'hero" was left to die in a miserable health care facility, while Brantly and .Writebol got the royal treatment, whisked out of Africa and given a miracle "cure." Same with some aging Spanish priest.

[Plutonia]

Speaking of not trusting Westerners ...

Years ago, I watched a TV documentary about an ebola outbreak in (I think?) Zaire - yes, that's right, it was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG-rJ-x-Dbs

Being a Paranoid, I was struck by a couple of details that were captured by, though unaddressed by, the filmmakers.

The first thing was that the WHO team collecting insects samples from the charcoal-burners' camp suspected of being the source and site of the original infection, wore no protective gear - just shorts and t-shirts. That seemed a bit reckless to me.

Then later, as the outbreak was winding down, one of the nurses at the clinic became infected. The Zairian doctors decided to make an antibody serum from the blood of a a patient who had survived and give it to the nurse in the hope of saving her. (That's what a vaccine is, isn't that right?) But the WHO team became incensed, tried to stop the Zairians, threatened to leave, and then did when the Zairians went ahead and did it anyway.

That seemed like very weird response, to me. Unless the WHO doctors were there primarily to study the epidemic, rather than treat the victims? It was a long time ago that I watched it, so it may be that my impressions would be different now, but I was left with the strong impression of having glimpsed a covert agenda. I'd be interested to hear what others make of it.

The nurse survived, BTW.




*Edited to fix formatting

[Hunter]

Lagos is in Nigeria, not Liberia.

LOL indeed it is, forgive my brain farts.

[Col. Quisp]

If it's so hard to catch, then 'splain this (bolded part):

West Africa feels knock-on effects of Ebola battle
2014-08-11 08:04
Freetown - West Africa is counting the cost of measures to contain the deadly Ebola epidemic, as unprecedented restrictions cause food shortages, transport snarls and soaring prices, sparking fears people could die of hunger.

"We are trying to cope," said Joseph Kelfalah, the mayor of Kenema, in an eastern district of Sierra Leone that is under strict quarantine along with nearby Kailahun, but he added that food prices were "escalating".

Tribal authorities are imposing huge fines for failure to report cases of Ebola, which has claimed nearly 1 000 lives in west Africa in the worst outbreak in four decades.

International health emergency

Under the country's "Operation Octopus", some 1 500 soldiers and police have been deployed to enforce the quarantines, turning people away at checkpoints and accompanying health workers searching for people who may have contracted the virus.

"Only essential officials and food items are being allowed in after intensive searches," deputy police chief Karrow Kamara told AFP.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the countries hardest hit by the epidemic, which the UN World Health Organisation has called an international health emergency.

Liberia has been particularly affected by food shortages since declaring its state of emergency on Wednesday. It, too, has deployed soldiers to restrict movement, notably from the worst-affected northern provinces to the capital Monrovia.

'People will die of hunger'

Sando Johnson, a senator in the province of Bomi, northwest of Monrovia, said the restrictions were "severe" and warned people would die of starvation if they are not relaxed.

"My country has been completely quarantined because soldiers don't allow anyone to get out of the area and they don't allow anyone to go there," he told AFP by telephone.

"A bag of rice that sold for 1 300 LD ($14) is now selling for 1 800 LD. The poor people will die of hunger, for God's sake."

Health workers have been tasked with raising awareness about the disease which causes fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.

Helpline

An emergency helpline set up by Liberia's Ebola taskforce to provide information on the virus had received 1 800 calls by Friday.

"Aside from lots of confusion, aside from sick persons, aside from the fact that we also want to create awareness, this call centre is there to create calm but to also disseminate information and to gather information that can be shared with the national task force," said Barkue Tubman, a spokesperson for the centre in Monrovia.

The virus is spread by close contact with an infected person through bodily fluids such as sweat, blood and tissue.

In Sierra Leone, 10 motorcycle taxi drivers have been infected after unknowingly carrying Ebola patients, according to the president of the National Bike Riders Association, David Sesay.

The two-wheeled taxis, which put rider and passenger in close contact, are an indispensable form of transport in remote areas of west Africa.

Efforts to halt the epidemic have been stymied by ignorance, distrust of Westerners and false rumours. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has warned against spreading false information "which can lead to mass hysteria, panic and misdirection".

Suspected cases

A Romanian man was placed in quarantine in a Bucharest hospital specialising in infectious diseases on suspicion of having contracted Ebola in Nigeria.

The 51-year-old patient, who returned from Nigeria on 25 July, exhibited symptoms of the virus - but they could also indicate malaria or typhoid fever, a hospital source said on Sunday.

A "suspected case" was also reported in Senegal, where a 27-year-old man with Ebola-like symptoms was placed in isolation in a hospital in the north of the country. The man later tested negative for the virus, a health official said.

Nigeria has reported 13 confirmed, probable or suspected cases of Ebola, whose incubation period ranges from two to 21 days.

It suspended flights into the country by the Gambian national airline on Sunday, saying the company's efforts to screen for the virus were "unsatisfactory".

Experimental drug

Meanwhile, Spain said a Spanish priest infected with Ebola will be treated with an experimental drug already used on two repatriated Americans.

The drug, called ZMapp, arrived at Madrid's La Paz-Carlos III hospital, where the 75-year-old missionary was being treated in isolation, the health ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

The Roman Catholic priest, Miguel Pajares, was one of three people who tested positive for Ebola at the Saint Joseph Hospital in Monrovia where he worked.

Giving the traditional Angelus prayer in St Peter's Square at the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis called for prayers "for the victims of the Ebola virus and for those who are fighting to stop it".

The World Health Organisation said on Saturday that clinical trials of vaccines against Ebola should begin soon and will likely be ready for widespread use by early next year.
- AFP

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/West- ... e-20140811


It's not like they are swapping spit or bodiliy fluids.

And it's interesting the miracle drug is called ZMapp. Zombie Map??

[Hunter]

Well they do sit pretty close on those moto-taxis, I think its been made clear that close contact is all that is required. You have sweat in that heat pouring off people it probably doesnt take much. Also ten is not a large number when you figure this is one of the main modes of transport and there are literally thousands of these taxis and drivers around.



Though I am not really arguing against your point, as far as I know and have been told it is not THAT easy to catch but I understand that may be misleading.

[Col. Quisp]

Well, THAT was a waste of scarce resources...
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ ... g-24924569

A Spanish missionary priest being treated for Ebola died Tuesday in a Madrid hospital, authorities said.

Spain's Health Ministry said a day earlier that it had obtained a course of the U.S.-made experimental Ebola drug ZMapp to treat Father Miguel Pajares, 75.

Pajares died Tuesday at Carlos III Hospital, the hospital and his order said. The hospital would not confirm that he had been treated with the drug, but his order said earlier that he would be.

He is one of only three Ebola patients thought to have received the experimental drug. The others are two Americans evacuated to Atlanta.

Why was HE so special?

[Col. Quisp]

http://frontpageafricaonline.com/index. ... er-matters

Why Patrick Sawyer Matters!

Written by FPA Editorial
Published: 12 August 2014


THERE HAVE BEEN a lot of questions from inquiring minds wondering why we continue to press on with the Patrick Sawyer story.


SAWYER, THE COORDINATOR of the ECOWAS National Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, was infected with the virus from his sister, Princess, who died at the Catholic Hospital.

LAST FRIDAY, the World Health Organization reported four new cases of Ebola in Nigeria, all among health care workers and others who had contact with Sawyer. “They’re all contacts of Patrick Sawyer,” said Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the WHO in Geneva. He said all are health care workers, cleaners or others at the hospital where Sawyer was taken after he collapsed at the airport following a flight from Liberia to Nigeria. “We know that he had contact with very few people at the airport,” Hartl said.

PRSIDENT SIRLEAF has previously acknowledged that Sawyer knowingly put other countries at risk. During a recent fact-finding mission to Lagos, FrontPageAfrica gathered from diplomats and medical practitioners at the hospital that Sawyer behaved rather strangely with healthcare workers in manners similar to what Nurse Obi Justina is now revealing. But one hospital source told FPA that in addition to yanking the infusion tubes, Sawyer took off his pants and urinated on the floor as nurses fled from his presence. The hospital was shut down immediately after Sawyer’s death.

TODAY, ONE of those health care workers, Nurse Justina Obi is clinging onto her life. She had previously ruled out infection when she posted a message on her Facebook page, stating: “I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak)… I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact. Not directly with his fluids. At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed… but the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution.”

SHORTLY AFTER THE posting, Nurse Obi reportedly went into quarantine and is said to be currently treated at the Mainland hospital in Yaba, Lagos alongside about 40 others.

SAWYER IS SAID to have exhibited a similar behavior by Sawyer prior to his sister’s death has been documented at the Catholic Hospital, where several nurses and doctors have died in recent weeks.

THE TRUTH of the matter is, until Sawyer’s death and entry of the virus into Lagos, regional air carriers were still taking passengers to and from Liberia.

TODAY, PASSENGERS daring to enter Liberia are forced to cough up nearly one thousand United States dollars just for a one-way ticket into the Ebola-hit nation from neighboring Ghana, Nigeria, if one can get it, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Senegal.

LAST WEEK, when a blunder by the Deputy Director General for Technical Services at the Liberia Broadcasting Service, led to the President’s address to the nation, not being played in the state-radio, LBS, the official was immediately dismissed.

Now the inquiry into the Sawyer negligence which led him to travel out of the country under such risky condition had led to new information that Arcellor Mittal, where Sawyer worked as an employee red flagged Sawyer’s Ebola status after he visited the company headquarters in Buchanan and explained about the death of his sister from the deadly virus, a newsletter from the company and other communication indicates.

IN A JULY 11, 2014 memo to employees of Mittal captioned “Important Ebola Notice to All Employees and Contractors”, the company disclosed that Sawyer’s sister had died of the Ebola virus and he had minimal contact with his sister at the time the virus can be infectious.

STATED MITTAL “A family member of an ArcelorMittal Liberia employee died on Tuesday, July 8th, in Monrovia due to a confirmed case of the Ebola virus. The employee had minimal contact with the victim, at the state where the virus was infectious. Doctors say the risk of potential transfer to any member of the ArcelorMittal staff or contractors is very low”.

WHILE A COMPANY MITTAL was taking such measures, the Ministry of Finance failed to follow suit granting Sawyer the permission to travel. A former official of the Ministry admitted approving Sawyer’s travel contending that there was no medical report indicating that Sawyer was positive for the virus.

“THE MAN WAS on NO watch list. I approved his travel. He emailed us several weeks earlier that his sister had died from the disease and that he had asked that his blood be taken for testing. That test result did not come back positive. So to say someone made him travel and exposed him to others is pure hate and mis-use of a tragedy that have somehow brought the message home to the many who are in denial of this deadly disease, which by the way has NO CURE”, Deputy Minister for Budget Sabastian admitted.

EVEN NIGERIAN PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan Monday ranted Sawyer actions, describing him as a madman. "It is unfortunate that one mad man brought Ebola to us, but we have to contain it," President Jonathan said. "As a government we promise we will do everything possible to contain Ebola."

WE FEEL the same action against the LBS official needs to be applied to those who have now authorized Sawyer to leave Liberia, spreading the virus that is wreaking havoc not only on ordinary Liberians but the economic shambles the shambles the nation now finds itself.

comments:

Sylvester Moses · Top Commenter
The editorial boils down to the question: shouldn’t former Deputy Minister of Finance Sebastian Muah Weah be fired for saying “The man was on no watch list. I approve his travel”? To make that determination, however, would depend on some factors, example, what he knew or didn’t know about the possible infection of the deceased prior to the trip, regardless of the fact that “the man was on no watch list“.

For instance, did the Deputy Minister know that Sawyer was put on a 21 days leave of absence by ArcelotMittal in keeping with the three weeks incubation guidelines of the Ministry of Health? Was that information given to him by Sawyer, or the company? Or did MOH actually write MOF that the test on Sawyer wasn’t positive, and if so was a 21 days incubation period advised?

Unless the answers to all those questions are in the affirmative, it would seem unfair to dismiss Mr. Weah who could’ve been in the dark because Sawyer wasn’t forthcoming. Nonetheless, his flippant tone on talk radio ala “Take me to the international court of justice” underscored a failure to understand the magnitude of the exposure in Lagos, and his obligation to have ensured due diligence as soon as the chances of Sawyer being infected existed.
Reply · Like · Follow Post · 26 minutes ago

Stanf BushChicken Peab · Follow · Portfolio Manager at GROW Liberia: Facilitating Inclusive Markets
It was the wife of an employee of Mittal who saved the day for the company. She advised her husband who also is in the employ of the company that Sawyer's sister had died from ebola and that Sawyer against the advise of nurses at the scene had touched, undressed and dressed his sister and had gotten his clothes and shoes splattered with blood. Based on his wife's revelation the company was able to deal with the Sawyer issue, asking Sawyer to stay home for 21 days. As for the negative results Muah spoke of, Dr. Borbor when first tested after he lifted the body of Brisbane out of the ambulance to the hospital against advise of others, he tested negative. It was only recently that Dr. Borbor was tested positive after starting to show signs. Several nurses and other persons have tested negative initially and then later on positive. The guard against all that is the 21 day incubation period once it is established that there was substantial contact. In Patrick's case, there was. THIS IS JUST FOR GENERAL INFORMATION.

[Col. Quisp]

[Col. Quisp]

from flutrackers - http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showth ... p?t=226414



Ramping up quickly now. Both cases and death numbers have doubled in roughly a month.

[conniption]

The Ebola Effect: Hyping the Next Bioweapon For Fear and Profit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szPA9wsakQo

Published on Aug 12, 2014

SHOW NOTES AND MP3: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=11772

Are you worried about the ebola pandemic? Should you be? Is it hype? Real? A false flag? Bioterrorism? A Big Pharma scam? Join James today on The Corbett Report podcast as he peels back the layers of the ebola onion and exposes the pandemic endgame.

[Col. Quisp]

Number of new cases reported in a two-day span seems to be doubling? Am I wrong?

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_08_13_ebola/en/

Ebola virus disease update - west Africa

Disease outbreak news
13 August 2014
Epidemiology and surveillance

Between 10 and 11 August 2014, a total of 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 56 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Contact tracing in Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone has resulted in a range between 94% and 98% of contacts of EVD cases being identified and followed-up. In Liberia, efforts are underway to strengthen contact tracing, but help is needed in this area. The Liberian Army has also recently placed a third province under quarantine as part of the ongoing effort to stop transmission of EVD.
Health sector response

On 11 August, WHO convened a panel of medical ethicists, scientific experts, and lay people from the affected countries to consider and assess the ethical implications for clinical decision-making of the potential use of unregistered interventions.

In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met, the panel reached consensus that it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention.

Ethical criteria must guide the provision of such interventions. These include transparency about all aspects of care, informed consent, freedom of choice, confidentiality, respect for the person, preservation of dignity and involvement of the community.

Additional information on the outcomes of the meeting can be found at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/sta ... ummary/en/. A report of the meeting proceedings will be available to the public by 17 August 2014.

On the operational side, WHO is finalizing its strategic operations response plan and expects to share this with countries and partners in the coming days. Mapping is also underway to develop an operational picture in order to coordinate and move people and materials to areas of greatest need.

WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied except in cases where individuals have been confirmed or are suspected of being infected with EVD or where individuals have had contact with cases of EVD. (Contacts do not include properly-protected health-care workers and laboratory staff.) Temporary recommendations from the Emergency Committee with regard to actions to be taken by countries can be found at http://who.int/mediacentre/news/stateme ... 140808/en/.
Disease update
Confirmed, probable, and suspect cases and deaths from Ebola virus disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, as of 11 August 2014

New (1) Confirmed Probable Suspect Totals
Guinea
Cases 4 369 133 8 510
Deaths 4 242 133 2 377
Liberia
Cases 71 166 358 146 670
Deaths 32 149 153 53 355
Nigeria
Cases 0 10 0 2 12
Deaths 1 0 3 0 3
Sierra Leone
Cases 53 706 38 39 783
Deaths 19 295 34 5 334
Totals
Cases 128 1251 529 195 1975
Deaths 56 686 323 60 1069
(1) New cases were reported between 10 and 11 August 2014.

The total number of cases is subject to change due to ongoing reclassification, retrospective investigation, and availability of laboratory results. Data reported in the Disease Outbreak News are based on official information reported by Ministries of Health.

[stefano]

A bit depressing - more Nigerians have now died from a useless folk remedy than from confirmed Ebola cases.

Benue - Two more Nigerians have died from excess consumption of salt water to supposedly prevent contacting the deadly Ebola virus in Benue State, Daily Post reports.

Dr. Joseph Kumba, Director, Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Human Services who made the announcement, said the victims died at Ushakaa clinic as a result of drinking and bathing with hot salted water.

Two people died while twenty were admitted in the hospital last week after excessive consumption of salt to prevent being infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Jos, Plateau State capital.