Africa

Assessing the Science of Ebola Transmission

Wed, 2014-10-29 18:24 — mike kraft

THREE ARTICLES DESCRIBING DETAILS OF THE EBOLA VIRUS AND OTHER VIRUSES.
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Advances in microscopy have allowed scientists like Sriram Subramaniam and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute to look at the workings of tiny viruses. In this case, microscopy was used to illustrate the complex process in which human cells infected with HIV-1, green and blue, are linked to uninfected cells. Credit Illustration by Donald Bliss/N.I.H, from The Journal of Virology/American Society for Microbiology

The research on how the virus spreads is not as ambiguous as some have made it seem

THE ATLANTIC Oct. 28, 2014

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How Ebola quarantines actually work, explained

Wed, 2014-10-29 17:00 — mike kraft

A young man, dressed in a biohazard costume, stands on the corner of 546 West 147th Street in New York City. Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

VOX Oct. 29, 2014
By Julia Bellez
As Ebola fears wash over America, some state governors are turning to mandatory quarantines: locking up healthy workers returning from West Africa for 21 days, Ebola's incubation period. The policy in New Jersey made national headlines after it resulted in a nurse who had no Ebola symptoms — and had been fighting the disease in West Africa, no less — being isolated in a poorly heated tent with no running shower or toilet.

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Chuck Hagel Approves 21-Day Ebola Quarantine For Troops

Wed, 2014-10-29 12:53 — mike kraft

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel briefs reporters at the Pentagon, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2014, on the military health care system. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 29, 2014
By Robert Burns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday approved a recommendation by military leaders that all U.S. troops returning from Ebola response missions in West Africa be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days.

The move goes beyond precautions recommended by the Obama administration for civilians, although President Barack Obama has made clear he feels the military's situation is different from that of civilians, in part because troops are not in West Africa by choice.

In explaining his decision, Hagel noted that the military has more people in Africa helping with the Ebola effort than any other segment of the U.S. government.

"This is also a policy that was discussed in great detail by the communities, by the families of our military men and women, and they very much wanted a safety valve on this," he said at a public forum in Washington.

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Exclusive: New test for diagnosing Ebola goes unused

Wed, 2014-10-29 12:08 — mike kraft

WABC NEWS Oct. 28 2014
By Jim Hoffer

NEW YORK

Report says that when a 5-year-old boy who came back from Guinea was admitted to New York's Bellevue hospital recently, city officials stopped the use of a a one-hour testing device although it had received the FDA's emergency approval.

As a result, it took 10 hours from the time he spiked a fever till his parents, medical staff, and the public found out, he did NOT have Ebola.

Read complete article.

http://7online.com/health/new-test-for-diagnosing-ebola-goes-unused/369875/

Direct link - BioFire Defense
http://biofiredefense.com/

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State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.

Wed, 2014-10-29 10:32 — mike kraft

LEAKED MEMO SAYS STATE DEPARTMENT CONSIDERING TREATING NON-AMERICAN HEALTH WORKERS BUT AN OFFICIAL SAYS DISCUSSIONS WERE SHELVED

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Oct. 29, 2014
By Stephen Dinan- The Washington Times - Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.

Some countries “are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances” before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.... (Editor's note: Australia and Canada are among the countries.)

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The whole world relies on this one U.S. company to fly Ebola patients

Tue, 2014-10-28 21:39 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST Oct 28, 2014
By Josh Hicks
When it comes to transporting Ebola victims by air, the world relies on just one small U.S. company.

Phoenix Air has been using the isolation system below this aircraft to transport Ebola patients. (EPA/BRANDEN CAMP)

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Nurse's discharge leaves one Ebola case in U.S., though larger battle continues

Tue, 2014-10-28 20:29 — mike kraft

CNN Oct. 28, 2014

By Greg Botelho, Jason Hanna and Ashley Fantz,

The release today of nurse Amber Vinson from the Emory Unversity hospital in Atlanta hospital leaves a single person in the United States now battling Ebola, though MS Vinson and others -- including President Barack Obama -- stressed the fight against the deadly virus isn't over.

Dr. Craig Spencer is now the only person in the United States being treated for Ebola. The 33-year-old was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York City after developing a fever on Thursday, six days after returning to the United States and over a week after leaving Guinea, where he worked for Doctors Without Borders.

See complete story
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/health/us-ebola/
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WASHINGTON POST GRAPHICS

Seven people were treated and declared Ebola-free; one died. Here is a look at the nine U.S. Ebola patients:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/status-of-us-ebola-cases/1406/

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Obama Defends C.D.C.’s Ebola Rules as ‘Sensible, Based in Science’

Tue, 2014-10-28 19:42 — mike kraft

WHITE HOUSE SUPPORTS CDC GUIDELINES FOR CIVILIANS, EXPLAINS DIFFERENT TREATMENT FOR U.S. TROOPS

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 28, 2014
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday said that new Ebola guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were “sensible, based in science” and would help keep Americans safe while not discouraging volunteers from traveling to West Africa to battle the disease at its source....

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Ebola outbreak's 'Patient Zero' identified as a two-year-old boy from Guinea named Emile Ouamouno

Tue, 2014-10-28 18:19 — mike kraft

In a study for the New England Journal of Medicine, a team of experts had traced the disease to the village in Guéckédou, in southeastern Guinea, by reviewing hospital documents and speaking to those involved.

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Top UN Ebola Official: New Cases Poorly Tracked

Tue, 2014-10-28 16:58 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 28, 2014
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA

KAMPALA, Uganda--Athorities are having trouble figuring out how many more people are getting Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone and where the hot spots are in those countries, harming efforts to get control of the raging, deadly outbreak, the U.N.'s top Ebola official in West Africa said Tuesday.

"The challenge is good information, because information helps tell us where the disease is, how it's spreading and where we need to target our resources," Anthony Banbury told The Associated Press by phone from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, where the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, is based.

Health experts say the key to stopping Ebola is breaking the chain of transmission by tracing and isolating those who have had contact with Ebola patients or victims. Health care workers can't do that if they don't know where new cases are emerging.

"And unfortunately, we don't have good data from a lot of areas. We don't know exactly what is happening," said Banbury, the chief of UNMEER.

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