Africa

CDC releases revised Ebola gear guidelines

Mon, 2014-10-20 20:22 — mike kraft

UPDATED WITH MORE DETAILS

WASHINGTON POST Oct. 20, 2014

During a media briefing late Monday, CDC Director Thomas Frieden said the updated guidelines give a greater margin of safety to health-care workers. They are modeled closely on those used by Doctors Without Borders, the aid group that has worked most extensively in West Africa... The guidance also reflects the consensus of specialists at Emory University Hospital, Nebraska Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health, which are currently treating Ebola patients.

UCLA Health System doctors and staff participate in a preparedness exercise on diagnosing and treating patients with Ebola virus symptoms. On Oct. 20, the CDC tightened protocols for health-care workers explicitly recommending that no skin be exposed. (Reed Hutchinson/AP)

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In U.S., Fear of Ebola Closes Schools and Shapes Politics

Mon, 2014-10-20 16:39 — mike kraft

ROUNDUP OF REACTIONS AND ANALYSIS

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 20, 2014

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

In the month since a Liberian man infected with Ebola traveled to Dallas, where he later died, the nation has marinated in a murky soup of understandable concern, wild misinformation, political opportunism and garden-variety panic.

In Rock Island, Ill., Barhyeau Philips said he and his family would stay home for the next few weeks since the arrival of his daughter Jennifer from Liberia. Credit John Schultz/Quad-City Times, via Zuma
...

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Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus

Mon, 2014-10-20 15:42 — mike kraft

CDC Posted Oct. 20, 2014 from CDC Oct. 17 document

This document is a concise summary of published information on the current science about human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus. It is developed for use by healthcare personnel and public health professionals to use. It is a complement to the many guidance documents that CDC has issued already online at

www.cdc.gov/ebola.

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Lawmakers Urge Temporary Visa Suspension for Ebola-Affected Nations

Mon, 2014-10-20 12:27 — mike kraft

CONGRESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTS: CALLS FOR SUSPENDNG VISAS, AND HEARING ANNOUNCED ON EXPECTED NEW BUDGET REQUEST

HOMELAND SECURITY TODAY Oct. 10 2014
By: Amanda Vicinanzo, Senior Editor

WASHINGTON --Amid calls to issue a travel ban to and from West Africa to help protect Americans from Ebola, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, introduced the proposition that the US should look at the idea of temporarily suspending the thirteen thousand visas that would be coming out of the region.

Rep. McCaul, along with subcommittee chairmen Reps. Peter King (R-NY), Candice Miller (R-Mich), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Richard Hudson (R-NC) and Susan Brooks (R-Ind) recently urged the Obama administration that “additional steps should be considered to curtail the potential spread of Ebola to the United States.

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Nigeria Is Ebola-Free: Here’s What They Did Right

Mon, 2014-10-20 10:15 — mike kraft

It's been 42 days since the last new case

TIME MAGAZINE OCT. 20, 2014

Alexandra Sifferlin

The World Health Organization declared Nigeria free of Ebola on Monday, a containment victory in an outbreak that has stymied other countries’ response efforts....

A school official takes a pupil's temperature using an infrared digital laser thermometer in front of the school premises, at the resumption of private schools, in Lagos, Sept. 22, 2014. Akintunde Akinleye—Reuters

“It’s possible to control Ebola. It’s possible to defeat Ebola. We’ve seen it here in Nigeria,” Nigerian Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu told TIME. “If any cases emerge in the future, it will be considered—by international standards—a separate outbreak. If that happens, Nigeria will be ready and able to confront it exactly as we have done with this outbreak.”

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U.S. to issue new Ebola care guidelines, watch lists to shrink

Mon, 2014-10-20 07:50 — mike kraft

ROUNDUP OF DEVELOPMENTS SUNDAY

REUTERS Oct 19, 2014

By Erwin Seba

GALVESTON Texas --(Reuters) - The United States will issue strict new guidelines telling American health workers to cover their skin and hair when dealing with Ebola patients, a top health official said on Sunday, while some of the dozens of people being watched for possible exposure to the virus are expected to be cleared.

A health care worker receives protocol on the proper removal of personal protection equipment from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructors in preparation for the response to the current Ebola outbreak, during a CDC safety training course in Anniston, Alabama, October 6, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell

In Texas, a lab worker who spent much of a Caribbean holiday cruise in isolation tested negative for the deadly virus and left the Carnival Magic liner with other passengers after it docked at Galveston early on Sunday morning....

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The Bigger Picture: Ebola - Dr. Michael D. McDonald

Sun, 2014-10-19 22:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

RT – Thom Hartmann - The Bigger Picture: Ebola – October 17-18, 2014

Dr. Michael D. McDonald, Robert Walker and DeAnn McEwen – A Discussion on Ebola

To stop Ebola from spreading in West Africa, Dr. Michael D. McDonald, Executive Director of Health Initiatives Foundation Inc. and the Global Resilience System talks about the need to have community strategies where we set up Resilience Capacity Zones to reduce the transmission and the translocation of Ebola. He states we need to create behavioral and social immunity around Ebola-affected areas to reduce the transmission and translocation. We need to create Ebola-resistant, and Ebola-free zones in ring-like fashion.

CLICK HERE - The Bigger Picture: Ebola

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZlUp_aVgxc

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Long Quest for Ebola Vaccine Slowed by Science, Ethics, Politics

Sun, 2014-10-19 16:04 — Maeryn Obley

An experimental Ebola vaccine has been developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph by Steve Parsons, AP

Image: An experimental Ebola vaccine has been developed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Photograph by Steve Parsons, AP

news.nationalgeographic.com - October 14th, 2014 - Karen Weintraub

Ebola vaccines are so effective in monkeys that macaques can be protected or rescued even if they're injected with a hundred times the lethal dose of the Ebola virus after vaccination. But no one knows for certain whether the vaccines will work in humans; the vaccines haven't yet been rigorously tested in people.

Just developing the vaccines to test in monkeys was a grueling, decades-long process that has killed scores of macaques since the 1990s.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Pentagon building rapid-response Ebola team

Sun, 2014-10-19 14:41 — mike kraft

USA TODAY Oct. 19, 2014

BY Gregg Zoroya and John Bacon

The Pentagon will build a 30-person, rapid-response Ebola medical support team to aid civilian health care workers should additional cases of the virus be diagnosed in the U.S., officials said Sunday.

The effort was requested by the Department of Health and Human Services "as an added prudent measure to ensure our nation is ready to respond quickly, effectively and safely in the event of additional Ebola cases," a Pentagon statement said.

http://www.defense.gov/Releases/Release.aspx?ReleaseID=16986

The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered his Northern Command Commander, Gen. Chuck Jacoby, to prepare and train the team. It will include 20 critical-care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease and five trainers in infectious-disease protocols...

Team members will remain in a "prepare to deploy" status for 30 days after training. They will not be sent to West Africa or elsewhere overseas and "will be called upon domestically only if deemed prudent by our public health professionals," the statement said.

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