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This working group is focused on discussions about health.

The mission of this working group is to focus on discussions about health.

Members

Corey Watts John Girard jonber37 Kathy Gilbeaux Lisa Stelly Thomas Maeryn Obley
mdmcdonald MDMcDonald_me_com mike kraft

Email address for group

health-us@m.resiliencesystem.org

U.S. tightens Ebola monitoring for West African visitors

NEW YORK -- U.S. health officials imposed fresh constraints on Wednesday on people entering the country from three countries at the center of West Africa's Ebola epidemic, mandating that they report their temperature daily and stay in touch with health authorities.

U.S. Coast Guard Health Technician Nathan Wallenmeyer (L) and Customs Border Protection (CBP) Supervisor Sam Ko conduct prescreening measures on a passenger arriving from Sierra Leone at O’Hare International Airport's Terminal 5 in Chicago, in this handout picture taken October 16, 2014.

The move announced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) marked the latest precautions put in place by the U.S. government to stop the spread of the virus, but stopped short of a ban on travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as demanded by some lawmakers.

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EBOLA RESPONSE ROAD MAP SITUATION REPORT

 

                                                                            22, October, 2014

WHO's  new report says the number of confirmed,suspected and probable Ebola cases has reached 9936 with 4877 deaths confirmed.

See full Report and graphs

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137091/1/roadmapsitrep22Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1

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Ebola Study Projects Spread of Virus on Overseas Flights

A study projects up to three Ebola-infected people could be on overseas flights each month from the three most-affected African countries. WSJ's Gautam Naik reports. Photo: Getty

CLICK HERE - The Lancet - Assessment of the potential for international dissemination of Ebola virus via commercial air travel during the 2014 west African outbreak

wsj.com - by Gautam Naik - Oct. 20, 2014

Up to three Ebola-infected people could embark on overseas flights every month from the three most-affected African countries, according to a new study that projected travel patterns based on infection rates and recent flight schedules.

The findings, published Monday in the journal Lancet, suggest that Ebola cases could be spread overseas by unwitting travelers from the worst-hit countries—Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization has estimated that, by early December, there could be as many as 10,000 new cases a week in west Africa.

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21-day quarantine for Ebola may not be enough to prevent spread of virus: Study

HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE                                              Oct. 20, 2014

As medical personnel and public health officials are responding to the first reported cases of Ebola Virus in the United States, many of the safety and treatment procedures for treating the virus and preventing its spread are being reexamined. One of the tenets for minimizing the risk of spreading the disease has been a 21-day quarantine period for individuals who might have been exposed to the virus.

 A new study by Charles Haas, Ph.D., a professor in Drexel’s College of Engineering, suggests, however, that twenty-one days might not be enough completely to prevent spread of the virus.

Read full article

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20141020-21day-quarantine-for-ebola-may-not-be-enough-to-prevent-spread-of-virus-study

Link to the study
http://currents.plos.org/outbreaks/article/on-the-quarantine-period-for-ebola-virus/

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Spanish Nurse Infected With Ebola Is Declared Free of Disease

SPANISH NURSE AND NBC CAMERMAN CLEARED OF VIRUS, DALLAS NURSE  PAM'S ' CONDITION UPGRADED TO GOOD. (Three stories)

Freelance TV cameraman Ashoka Mukpo is shown in Liberia in this August photograph. He was declared free of Ebola on Tuesday after undergoing treatment at a hospital in Nebraska.(Photo: Philip Marcelo, AP)

 

NEW YORK TIMES                            Oct. 21, 2014

MADRID — The Spanish auxiliary nurse who was the first person known to have contracted the Ebola virus outside of Africa was declared cured of the disease on Tuesday, after a second test for the virus in recent days came back negative, according to officials at the hospital where she has been treated since Oct. 7.

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Ebola vaccine trials could start in Africa in January

UPDATE: Drugmakers to join forces to make millions of Ebola vaccine doses

REUTERS                                                                     Oct 22, 2014

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON -- Leading drugmakers plan to work together to speed up the development of an Ebola vaccine and hope to produce millions of doses for use next year.

U.S. firm Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday that it aims to produce at least 1 million doses of its two-step vaccine next year and has already discussed collaboration with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, which is working on a rival vaccine.

The economics of an Ebola vaccine are still unclear but drug companies with an eye on their reputations are under pressure to respond to the major international health crisis now ravaging one of the poorest corners of Africa.

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Rwanda to screen U.S. visitors for Ebola

USA TODAY                                  Oct. 21, 2014
By Doug Stanglin

The East African nation of Rwanda is requiring all visitors from the United States and Spain to self-monitor, fill out an extensive questionnaire and report their medical condition for the first 21 days of their visits because of the Ebola cases that have surfaced in the two Western countries.

Coincidentally or not, the new screening follows an embarrassing uproar in a New Jersey school over the imminent enrollment of two Rwanda children that initially prompted their parents to keep them at home for 21 days.

The U.S. and Spain have both recorded deaths from Ebola. In Dallas, a Liberian national died of the virus two weeks ago and two nurses who treated him tested positive for the virus. At least two Spanish missionaries died in Spain after contracting the disease in West Africa. One Spanish nurse also tested positive for the virus.

Rwanda,  located about 2,600 miles east of Liberia, the closest of the three West African countries with the Ebola outbreak...  has reported no cases of the virus.

The dust-up in New Jersey involving two Rwanda children took a new turn Monday with an apology by the superintendent of the Maple Shade School District in Burlington County.

Read full story

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DHS requires West Africa travelers to arrive at five airports

USA TODAY                                                                                     Oct. 21, 2914By Bart Jansen

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday.

                                                                       (Photo: Melissa Maraj, AP)

Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler's temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11.

Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson international airports.

Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. But lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too.

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Donations for Ebola Relief Are Slow to Gain Speed

NEW YORK TIMES

“Have you had any email solicitations?” asked Patrick M. Rooney, associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “If there had been an earthquake or tsunami, my question would be who had solicited you and how many times? Americans aren’t giving because they haven’t really been asked.”

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Special Report - A Primer on Ebola for Clinicians

journals.cambridge.org -  Eric Toner, Amesh Adalja and Thomas Inglesby. A Primer on Ebola for Clinicians.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, available on CJO2014. doi:10.1017/dmp.2014.115.

Abstract

The size of the world’s largest Ebola outbreak now ongoing in West Africa makes clear that further exportation of Ebola virus disease to other parts of the world will remain a real possibility for the indefinite future. Clinicians outside of West Africa, particularly those who work in emergency medicine, critical care, infectious diseases, and infection control, should be familiar with the fundamentals of Ebola virus disease, including its diagnosis, treatment, and control. In this article we provide basic information on the Ebola virus and its epidemiology and microbiology. We also describe previous outbreaks and draw comparisons to the current outbreak with a focus on the public health measures that have controlled past outbreaks. We review the pathophysiology and clinical features of the disease, highlighting diagnosis, treatment, and hospital infection control issues that are relevant to practicing clinicians. We reference official guidance and point out where important uncertainty or controversy exists. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-5)

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