Health

Mobile-phone records are an invaluable tool to combat Ebola. They should be made available to researchers

Sun, 2014-10-26 12:21 — mike kraft

THE ECONOMIST Oct. 25, 2014

With at least 4,500 people dead, public-health authorities in west Africa and worldwide are struggling to contain Ebola. Borders have been closed, air passengers screened, schools suspended. But a promising tool for epidemiologists lies unused: mobile cell phone data.

When people make mobile-phone calls, the network generates a call data record (CDR) containing such information as the phone numbers of the caller and receiver, the time of the call and the tower that handled it—which gives a rough indication of the device’s location. This information provides researchers with an insight into mobility patterns...

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Disaster Risk Reduction

Health

Technology

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

New York doctor with Ebola gets blood transfusion from aid worker who survived disease

Sun, 2014-10-26 11:40 — mike kraft

FOX NEWS Oct. 26, 2014

Doctors treating New York City’s first Ebola patient have given the ailing doctor a transfusion of blood plasma from an aid worker who was infected with the deadly disease in West Africa and survived.

Dr. Craig Spencer received the donated plasma Friday from Nancy Writebol, a health care worker with the Christian organization SIM. Writebol was treated in August at Emory Hospital in Georgia.

Bellevue Hospital, where Spencer is being treated, said Saturday evening that the 33-year-old physician is “entering the next phase of his illness as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms.”

The public hospital said in a statement that the patient is “awake and communicating.”

Read complete story

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/26/new-york-doctor-with-ebola-gets-blood-transfusion-from-aid-worker-who-survived/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about New York doctor with Ebola gets blood transfusion from aid worker who survived disease
Log in or register to post comments

No mandatory Ebola quarantine for health workers coming to Washington area

Sun, 2014-10-26 10:38 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST Oct. 26, 2014

By Spencer S. Hsu and Nia-Malika Henderson

One day after governors in New York, New Jersey and Illinois imposed a mandatory 21-day quarantine on medical workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa, public health officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia did not follow suit Saturday, intensifying a national debate over how to prevent the spread of the disease.

Health officials are working to develop a consistent approach for the area around the nation’s capital. Joxel Garcia, director of the D.C. Department of Health, said that a mandatory quarantine was not scientifically justified and could have a chilling effect on the medical personnel, many of them volunteers, needed to treat Ebola patients at home and overseas.

The differing views highlight challenges confronting federal and state politicians as well as health officials as they race to keep up with fast-changing circumstances and competing political, scientific and legal demands, experts said.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about No mandatory Ebola quarantine for health workers coming to Washington area
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

Statement by RN’s at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital as provided to National Nurses United

Sun, 2014-10-26 01:03 — Maeryn Obley

Logo that states 'Statement from the Nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas'

Image: Logo that states 'Statement from the Nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas'

nationalnursesunited.org - October 15th, 2014

This is an inside story from some registered nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who have familiarity with what occurred at the hospital following the positive Ebola infection of first the late Thomas Eric Duncan and then a registered nurse who cared for him Nina Pham.

The RNs contacted National Nurses United out of frustration with a lack of training and preparation. They are choosing to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Read more about Statement by RN’s at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital as provided to National Nurses United
Log in or register to post comments

As Ebola Spread in Dallas, New York Honed Protocol

Sat, 2014-10-25 21:39 — mike kraft

Health workers at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Oct. 8 demonstrated the gear that staff would wear to treat patients with Ebola. Credit Adrees Latif/Reuters

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 25, 2014

Detailed description of the differences in the way the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital and New York's Bellevue hospital handled their Ebola patients:.

"When Craig Spencer, a young doctor just back from treating patients with Ebola in Guinea, fell ill with the virus in New York on Thursday, the paramedics who went to get him were dressed in protective suits. He entered Bellevue Hospital through a rear door, far from the busy emergency room, and was taken to a state-of-the-art isolation ward that was locked and guarded.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about As Ebola Spread in Dallas, New York Honed Protocol
Log in or register to post comments

MSF Nurse Held in Isolation in New Jersey

Sat, 2014-10-25 21:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

doctorswithoutborders.org - October 25, 2014

NEW YORK – Kaci Hickox, a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) nurse who returned to the United States from Sierra Leone on October 24, 2014, is being held in a medical isolation facility at Newark University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey.

Preliminary blood tests reveal that she does not have the Ebola virus.

Upon arrival at Newark Liberty International Airport at approximately 1:00 PM yesterday, Ms. Hickox was taken aside for screening. Her temperature was measured and was shown to be normal. She was nonetheless held at the airport. After three hours her temperature was again taken with a forehead temperature reader. The device revealed a slight elevation in temperature. After being left alone in a room for an additional three hours, she was transported by police escort to Newark University Hospital by medical personnel in full protective gear.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about MSF Nurse Held in Isolation in New Jersey
2 comments
Log in or register to post comments

French scientists roll out rapid diagnostic test for Ebola

Sat, 2014-10-25 18:17 — mike kraft

FIERCE DIAGNOSTICS Oct. 23, 2014

By Emily Wasserman

French scientists are developing a diagnostic tool that works similar to a home pregnancy test and can quickly identify the virus through a tiny fluid sample.

CEA's Ebola testing kit uses strips to rapidly identify the presence of the virus in fluid samples.--Courtesy of France's Atomic Energy Commission

France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is teaming up with European pharma company Vedalab to roll out a user-friendly testing system than could diagnose Ebola in less than 15 minutes, the agency said in a statement. The kit, dubbed "Ebola eZYSCREEN," includes a hand-held device that reads small samples of blood, plasma or urine to detect the virus, and shows results in stripes through a window on the tool.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about French scientists roll out rapid diagnostic test for Ebola
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola crisis: Mali vows to keep Guinea border open despite child's death

Sat, 2014-10-25 14:15 — mike kraft

MALI KEEPS BORDERS OPEN WITH GUINEA AS MAURITANIA CLOSES ITS BORDER WITH MALI

REUTERS OCT. 25, 2014

BAMAKO--Mali will not close its borders with neighbouring Guinea after its first Ebola-related death, president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita says.

A two-year-old girl infected with the disease was brought across the frontier by her grandmother and died in Mali this week.

Mr Keita said that the incident showed it was impossible to completely seal his country off from Ebola but said he remained calm as the girl's journey and potential contacts had already been traced.

It comes as Mauritania has closed its border with Mali after the Ebola case was confirmed in Mali's western region, two Mauritanian officials said on Saturday.There is little accurate data but border closures by West African states trying to protect themselves from the epidemic have had a crippling effect on regional economies.

READ full story

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-26/mali-to-keep-guinea-border-open-despite-ebola-death/5841918

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola crisis: Mali vows to keep Guinea border open despite child's death
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola In US: President Obama Lauds CDC Response, Urges Public To Be 'Guided By Science'

Sat, 2014-10-25 12:46 — mike kraft

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES Oct. 25, 2014

By Charles Poladian

U.S. President Barack Obama again encouraged Americans to be “guided by the facts, not fear” in their assessments of Ebola virus disease as he discussed the first confirmed case in New York and the national response by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in his weekly address Saturday. Obama also mentioned the recoveries of Ashoka Mukpo and Nina Pham, who both tested negative for Ebola this week, and stressed the difficulty of contracting the virus.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola In US: President Obama Lauds CDC Response, Urges Public To Be 'Guided By Science'
Log in or register to post comments

Most New Yorkers Aren't Freaking Out About Ebola, So You Shouldn't Either

Sat, 2014-10-25 12:07 — mike kraft

New York City Council District 7 Community Liason Fidel Malena hands out flyers about Ebola risk near the apartment building of Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer, in New York, Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Spencer remained in stable condition while isolated in a hospital, talking by cellphone to his family and assisting disease detectives who are accounting for his every movement since arriving in New York from Guinea via Europe on Oct. 17. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) | ASSOCIATED PRESS

THE HUFFINGTON POST Oct. 24, 2014
By Carly Schwartz, Saki Knafo, Roque Planas & Sebastian Murdock

NEW YORK -- As news of New York City's first confirmed Ebola case spreads through the city, New Yorkers -- even those at the hospital where the patient is being treated, who rode the same subway lines he traveled on and who live in his building -- are remaining markedly calm....

Zachary Hasselbring, a New York University student riding the A train, ...said "I think everybody's overreacting a bit," he said. "It's blown out of proportion."

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report