Worst Ebola Outbreak Ever

[kyredneck]

Why Ebola reaching Nigeria’s largest city is a whole new level of scary

".....On Jul. 24, Nigerian authorities confirmed that a Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, had collapsed in Lagos after flying there from the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and tested positive for Ebola; Sawyer died on the night of July 24-25

This is alarming. So far, Ebola has been confined to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia—war-torn and largely rural west African countries. But Lagos is different; not only is it Africa’s biggest city, with 21 million people. It’s also one of the world’s most densely populated. And perhaps scariest of all, it’s a center for international travel—meaning that if it’s not contained, the virus could easily go global. Sawyer’s was the first-ever recorded case of Ebola in Nigeria, according to the Nigerian Tribune.

....Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian finance ministry, turned himself in to Nigerian health authorities after he began vomiting and having diarrhea in the middle of the three-hour flight from Monrovia to Lagos. Nigeria’s health minister says authorities are currently trying to track down an unspecified number of the 100 or so other passengers on the flight.

This might be tricky. The 35 Nigerian co-passengers took flight once word got out that the health ministry was supposed to have quarantined them, prompting the federal government to launch a manhunt to track them down...

Given that deadly efficiency, the fact that at least 35 people who might have been exposed are at large in Lagos—to say nothing of the other passengers arriving from infected areas of West Africa—is disquieting as well. Confined by geography, the built-up areas of metropolitan Lagos now have more than 20,000 people per square kilometer (53,000 per square mile)—about the same urban density as Dhaka or Mumbai. It has among the highest prevalence rates of open defecation of all major African cities, as well as some of Africa’s lousiest healthcare infrastructure....."

The virus incubation period from initial infection to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. A lot of eyes are going to be on the largest city in Africa for a while, you can bet.

 

[kyredneck]

Say some prayers for these people.

'We Need More': Fight Against Ebola is Thin on the Ground

"It’s the biggest outbreak ever of Ebola, affecting more than 1,200 people in three countries — four, if you count the man who traveled to Nigeria and died there....So there must be a cast of thousands in there, deploying equipment, medications and vaccines, and dispensing advice, right? ...Wrong.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent 12 people....
They’re not treating patients — they’re providing advice....What about the World Health Organization? That’s a big international group. “We have deployed over 120 people so far — our own, plus partner, staff. But we need a lot more,” says Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for WHO in Geneva. Cutbacks in international investment have forced WHO to slash budgets.....

“This is a nuts outbreak compared to anything I have ever seen,” said Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. “Geographically it is such a huge area and the virus seems to be popping up like whack-a-mole. The people who are skilled in responding are spread thin.”

It’s a desperate situation by any description. Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are all underdeveloped countries, with little medical infrastructure and with large swaths of countryside that don’t even have roads. Years of poverty and war have left governments in the region with few resources.

In Bo, a large city in Sierra Leone, there are fewer than 15 physicians to cover a population of between 150,000 and 450,000 people...."In Liberia, the situation is deteriorating rapidly, with cases of Ebola virus disease now confirmed in seven counties, including in the capital, Monrovia,"....“The outbreak has grown to the point where there is a desperate need for more international intervention,”.....“It’s tough to describe what it’s like there, other than to say intense,” Fischer told NBC News. “It’s incredibly taxing both physically and emotionally.”....

“One of the biggest barriers to diagnosis for people who think they might have the Ebola virus is the poor road network in the areas currently affected by Ebola,” Jacobsen said. “It is difficult for people living in rural areas to travel to a hospital, and most would have to travel even farther to get to a hospital that is accepting and treating suspected Ebola patients. Most families do not own cars, most rural communities are not connected to bus routes, and private transportation can be quite expensive compared to local incomes.”

And that’s just to help the patients who have been found. “There are major public health gaps in the ability simply to monitor what is going on,” says WHO’s Dr. Keiji Fukuda. “We know in some countries there are no surveillance systems to monitor what is going on.” ..."

 

[Earth Wind and Fire]

Why Ebola reaching Nigeria’s largest city is a whole new level of scary

".....On Jul. 24, Nigerian authorities confirmed that a Liberian man, Patrick Sawyer, had collapsed in Lagos after flying there from the Liberian capital, Monrovia, and tested positive for Ebola; Sawyer died on the night of July 24-25

This is alarming. So far, Ebola has been confined to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia—war-torn and largely rural west African countries. But Lagos is different; not only is it Africa’s biggest city, with 21 million people. It’s also one of the world’s most densely populated. And perhaps scariest of all, it’s a center for international travel—meaning that if it’s not contained, the virus could easily go global. Sawyer’s was the first-ever recorded case of Ebola in Nigeria, according to the Nigerian Tribune.

....Sawyer, who worked for the Liberian finance ministry, turned himself in to Nigerian health authorities after he began vomiting and having diarrhea in the middle of the three-hour flight from Monrovia to Lagos. Nigeria’s health minister says authorities are currently trying to track down an unspecified number of the 100 or so other passengers on the flight.

This might be tricky. The 35 Nigerian co-passengers took flight once word got out that the health ministry was supposed to have quarantined them, prompting the federal government to launch a manhunt to track them down...

Given that deadly efficiency, the fact that at least 35 people who might have been exposed are at large in Lagos—to say nothing of the other passengers arriving from infected areas of West Africa—is disquieting as well. Confined by geography, the built-up areas of metropolitan Lagos now have more than 20,000 people per square kilometer (53,000 per square mile)—about the same urban density as Dhaka or Mumbai. It has among the highest prevalence rates of open defecation of all major African cities, as well as some of Africa’s lousiest healthcare infrastructure....."

The virus incubation period from initial infection to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. A lot of eyes are going to be on the largest city in Africa for a while, you can bet.

Comforting....:tonofbricks:

 

[church mouse guy]

With all of the people just walking into the USA from all over the world, it could happen here.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I posted on this story two days ago, and its gotten much worse just since then. The doctor in the story is now listed in "grave" condition. Health officials here are saying it is a "low risk" of outbreak in the U.S.

Fox News: Low risk of Ebola outbreak in US, officials sayhttp://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/29/low-risk-ebola-outbreak-in-us-officials-say/http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/07/29/low-risk-ebola-outbreak-in-us-officials-say/

U.S. health officials are monitoring the Ebola outbreak in Africa but say the risk of the deadly germ spreading to the United States is remote.

The Centers for Disease Control on Monday sent a health alert to U.S. doctors about the outbreak. There are no travel restrictions to the West Africa region hit by the disease. But last month, the CDC issued a mid-level travel advisory for health workers.

Two American aid workers in Liberia have tested positive for the virus and are being treated there. The family of one worker - a doctor - recently returned to the U.S. for a visit. The CDC said they are fine.

Officials stressed people are not contagious until they show symptoms, and the doctor's family left Liberia days before he got sick.

What concerned me regarding this story is that there are no travel restrictions to West Africa. Let me understand this: The FAA banned U.S. air travel to Israel for a mere 24 hours because of rocket attacks that were "near" Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, where the risk of actually getting hit by a rocket are mathematically impossible, but we're not restricting air travel to West Africa where there is a several outbreak of the most deadly disease in the world?

Perhaps someone can explain this one.

 

[kyredneck]

U.S. shifts to Ebola defcon one

"Nigeria is now ground zero:

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. Nigerian authorities moved quickly late Wednesday, gathering isolation tents as five more cases of the Ebola Virus were confirmed in Lagos, a city bursting with 21 million people.

All five people are believed to be health workers who had direct contact with one man traveling from Ebola-ridden Liberia to Nigeria — making this country the fourth now infiltrated by the deadly disease...."


....and this one just blows my mind, it shows just how much stupidity and ignorance has to do with the spread of this virus in these backwards countries:

Ebola Victims' Bodies Dumped On West African Streets

"MONROVIA/DAKAR: Relatives of Ebola victims in Liberia defied government orders and dumped infected bodies in the streets as West African governments struggled to enforce tough measures to curb an outbreak of the virus that has killed 887 people ...... In Liberia's ramshackle ocean-front capital Monrovia, still scarred by the 1989-2003 civil war, relatives of Ebola victims were dragging bodies onto the dirt streets rather than face quarantine, officials said.

Information minister Lewis Brown said some people may be alarmed by regulations imposing the decontamination of victims' homes and the tracking of their friends and relatives. With less than half of those infected surviving the disease, many Africans regard Ebola isolation wards as death traps.

"They are therefore removing the bodies from their homes and are putting them out in the street. They're exposing themselves to the risk of being contaminated," Brown told Reuters. "We're asking people to please leave the bodies in their homes and we'll pick them up." .... "

If I understand it correctly, the corpse is the most infectious stage of the virus, and they're just dumping them out in the streets!

 

[poncho]

SAMARITAN'S PURSE CHIEF ADMITS EBOLA 'OUT OF CONTROL,' SLAMS DRUDGE FOR REPORTING IT

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/08/07/Samaritan-Purse-Chief-Admits-Ebloa-Out-Of-Control-Then-Slams-Drudge-For-Reporting-It#

 

[kyredneck]

SAMARITAN'S PURSE CHIEF ADMITS EBOLA 'OUT OF CONTROL,' SLAMS DRUDGE FOR REPORTING IT

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/08/07/Samaritan-Purse-Chief-Admits-Ebloa-Out-Of-Control-Then-Slams-Drudge-For-Reporting-It#

"...There is a guy in New York, a woman in England. Six people tested in the United States. There are reports of 340 peace corps workers coming back."

Confirming the new worthiness of the current "out of control" spread of the virus in heavily populated cities in West Africa at the end of the hearing Isaacs said, "We will see death tolls and numbers we can't imagine right now."..."

Wow, sounds like he's the one spreading panic.

There's been a case in New York?

 

[kyredneck]

...never mind:

Man in NYC cleared of Ebola virus as death toll creeps toward 1,000 overseas; infected dumped into Liberian streets

"Amid a trend of Liberian families dumping their Ebola-infected loved ones into the open, the government of Liberia is urging families to keep those suffering inside and they will be picked up. Meanwhile, as fear continues to spread, British Airways announced it will suspend all flights to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone."

How are folks supposed to get out of there if all the airlines suspend flights?

 

[poncho]

Where's the miracle vaccine?

Oh wait up till now the virus was only killing poor Africans. No money in saving them.

 

[kyredneck]

'Patient Zero' likely identified

Report: Ebola outbreak probably started with 2-year-old in Guinea

"The worst outbreak of Ebola, which has killed 961 people and triggered an international public health emergency, may have started with a 2-year-old patient in a village in Guinea.

About eight months ago, the toddler, whom researchers believe may have been Patient Zero, suffered fever, black stool and vomiting. Just four days after showing the painful symptoms, the child died on December 6, 2013, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.....

...Researchers who published the paper this year found a chain of illnesses in the toddler's family.

After the child's death, the mother suffered bleeding symptoms and died on December 13, according to the report. Then, the toddler's 3-year-old sister died on December 29, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and black diarrhea. The illness subsequently affected the toddler's grandmother, who died on January 1, in the family's village of Meliandou in Guéckédou.

The area in southern Guinea is close to the Sierra Leone and Liberia borders.

The illness spread outside their village after several people attended the grandmother's funeral...."

 

[kyredneck]

Things are getting a lot worse:

Ebola Numbers Vastly Underestimate Reach Of Outbreak, WHO Says

Kenya Shuts Borders To Ebola-Hit West African Countries

 

[kyredneck]

Cameroon closes all borders with Nigeria over Ebola outbreak

Ebola outbreak compared to wartime by Doctors Without Borders
Ebola centres fill faster than they can be opened, WHO says

 

[kyredneck]

Ebola outbreak: Five co-authors of latest study killed by virus before their research was published

Saturday 30 August 2014

"Five co-authors of the latest study on Ebola were killed by the virus before their research was published, highlighting the huge risks undertaken by those working to combat its spread.

Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi, Alice Kovoma, Mohamed Fullah and Sheik Umar Khan worked with lead researchers at Harvard University to examine the current outbreak.

Science Mag said all five were experienced members of the Kenema Government Hospital’s (KGH) Lassa fever team. Lassa fever infections have similar symptoms to Ebola.

Their work sequenced the virus genomes from 78 patients and traced the outbreak in Sierra Leone to a funeral of a healer, which a pregnant Kenema Government Hospital Ebola patient and other women who were also infected had attended.

Two months before his death, Mr Khan had described the dangers of treating people with the disease, telling Reuters he feared for his life.

He said: “I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life. Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for somebody who is sickened by disease. Even with the full protective clothing you put on, you are at risk.”

More than half of the 3,069 people infected by Ebola have died from the disease, which has spread across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and now Senegal.

The World Health Organisation has warned the current outbreak could infect up to 20,000 people before it ends.

The study, 'Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak', is published online in Science Magazine."

It takes as more or more guts for these medical people to do their duty as it does a soldier in war or law enforcement or firemen etc., in fact it appears they are in grave danger of losing their lives in the performance of their duties. They indeed have my prayers.

 

[OnlyaSinner]

Where's the miracle vaccine?

Oh wait up till now the virus was only killing poor Africans. No money in saving them.

And if the experimental vaccine (of which there is very little and which I think is now being administered to African healthcare workers) were first tested on Africans, I can see the next screaming headline: "Americans forego the usual animal-testing protocol, use black Africans instead!"