Epidemiat maailmalla

[ctg]

Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed in Sierra Leone and Liberia in an attempt to quarantine the remote villages at the centre of the Ebola outbreak, as three new cases were discovered in Nigeria and authorities in Saudi Arabia said a man was being tested for suspected infection.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/soldiers-sierra-leone-liberia-ebola

 

[ctg]

Lagos, Nigeria - Barely 24 hours before his death, Patrick Sawyer had a rather strange - and in the words of medical and diplomatic sources here, “Indiscipline” encounter with nurses and health workers at First Consultants Hospital in Obalende, one of the most crowded parts of Lagos, a population of some 21 million inhabitants, FrontPageAfrica has learned.

Looking to get to the bottom of Sawyer’s strange ailment on the Asky Airline flight, which Sawyer transferred on in Togo, hospital officials say, he was tested for both malaria and HIV AIDS. However, when both tests came back negative, he was then asked whether he had made contact with any person with the Ebola Virus, to which Sawyer denied. Sawyer’s sister, Princess had died of the deadly virus on Monday, July 7, 2014 at the Catholic Hospital in Monrovia. On Friday, July 25, 2014, 18 days later, Sawyer died in Lagos.

... authorities at the First Consultants Hospital in Obalende decided that despite Sawyer’s denial, they would test him for Ebola, due to the fact that he had just arrived from Liberia, where there has been an outbreak of the disease with more than 100 deaths.

The hospital issued a statement this week stating that Sawyer was quarantined immediately after he was discovered to have been infected with the deadly virus...

...upon being told he had Ebola, Mr. Sawyer went into a rage, denying and objecting to the opinion of the medical experts. “He was so adamant and difficult that he took the tubes from his body and took off his pants and urinated on the health workers, forcing them to flee.

The hospital would later report that it resisted immense pressure to let out Sawyer from its hospital against the insistence from some higher-ups and conference organizers that he had a key role to play at the ECOWAS convention in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.

http://www.frontpageafricaonline.co...inal-hours-in-lagos-indiscipline-rage-strange

Ebola Factaa:

INFECTIOUS DOSE: 1 - 10 aerosolized organisms are sufficient to cause infection in humans (21).

MODE OF TRANSMISSION: In an outbreak, it is hypothesized that the first patient becomes infected as a result of contact with an infected animal (15). Person-to-person transmission occurs via close personal contact with an infected individual or their body fluids during the late stages of infection or after death (1, 2, 15, 27). Nosocomial infections can occur through contact with infected body fluids due to the reuse of unsterilized syringes, needles, or other medical equipment contaminated with these fluids (1, 2). Humans may be infected by handling sick or dead non-human primates and are also at risk when handling the bodies of deceased humans in preparation for funerals, suggesting possible transmission through aerosol droplets (2, 6, 28).

In the laboratory, infection through small-particle aerosols has been demonstrated in primates, and airborne spread among humans is strongly suspected, although it has not yet been conclusively demonstrated (1, 6, 13). The importance of this route of transmission is not clear. Poor hygienic conditions can aid the spread of the virus (6).

In the aftermath of Sawyer’s death, diplomatic, ECOWAS and medical authorities here are baffled over Sawyer’s deception, especially armed with new information that his sister, Princess had died of the deadly virus and his denial. Finance Ministry sources in Monrovia are in quiet murmur over what they feel was a letdown by Sawyer for not being forthcoming with his peers he worked with.

Ehkä asiat ei Nigeriassa ole hyvällä mallilla varsinkin kun heillä on nyt 8 tunnettua tapausta. Montakohan tuntematon tapausta liikkuu kentällä? Lagos sentään on sen verran suuri kaupunki, että siellä riittää populaa saatuttamaan loppumaailma, varsinkin Ebolan pysyessä aktiivisena saastuttajana jopa kaksi kuukautta paranemisen jälkeen. Ja mikä täste tekee merkittävän on että Nigeriasta väkeä virtaa niin ympäri afrikkaa kuin eurooppaa. Mutta Suomi on siitä hyvässä paikassa että sitä nigerialiaisia ei niin paljon meillä käy kylässä. Joten kotimaalla on mahdollisuus sulkea rajoja jos siihen on tarve.

 

[ctg]

A hospital in Benin is treating a Nigerian man suspected of having contracted Ebola and authorities have sent a sample of his blood to Senegal for testing, Health Minister Dorothée Gazard said on state television on Thursday.

Benin case is unconfirmed but Gazard's announcement triggered widespread fears in the capital Cotonou. Many people said they would stock up on food and stop eating at popular roadside food stalls to avoid possible infection, witnesses said

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/chi-ebola-outbreak-20140807-story.html#page=1

The quickly escalating outbreak has triggered a demand for guidance for health providers, and the CDC yesterday posted its latest guidance, which focuses on handling specimens and laboratory testing of samples. Several health professionals aired questions about those procedures during an Aug 5 CDC conference call on hospital infection control.

The CDC said established standards should be followed for specimen collection, including full-face shield or goggles, masks to cover the mouth and nose, and fluid-resistant or impermeable gowns. It said additional personal protective equipment (PPE) may be needed in certain situations.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-pers...ale-ebola-response-watch-cases-outside-africa

West African patients infected with the Ebola virus will not have access to experimental drugs being used to treat American cases of the disease for several months, if at all, Nigerian health authorities said on Thursday.

Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu told a press conference he had asked the US health authorities about the unproven medicines used on two American doctors, but was told such small quantities existed that west Africa would have to wait for months for supplies, even if they were proved safe and effective.

Dr Kent Brantly and Dr Nancy Writebol of the evangelical Christian organisation Samantha's Purse contracted the virus while helping to treat victims in Liberia. They were given the drug ZMapp after being evacuated to the US, and appear to be recovering.

A spokesman for the US Centres for Disease Control said "there are virtually no doses available" and they would take several months to manufacture.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...t-africa-denied-experimental-drugs-us-nigeria

A Spanish missionary who contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia is in stable condition after arriving in Madrid on Thursday, health officials said.

Miguel Pajares, 75, arrived shortly after 8am local time (0700 BST) on a specially-equipped Airbus plane. He is the first Ebola patient of the current outbreak to be brought to Europe for treatment.

The hospital had been emptied of patients in preparation for Pajares's arrival, health union officials said. The 30 or so patients in the hospital were either sent home or to another hospital in the city.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...nary-miguel-pajares-virus-liberia-flown-spain

 

[ctg]

The husband and children of the Nigerian nurse who died after getting infected with the Ebola virus are on the run, the health officials in the country have said.

Nigeria is the fourth West African country to be hit by the Ebola outbreak since it first emerged in March in Guinea. The virus entered the country when Patrick Sawyer, who was suffering from the disease arrived by plane late last month in Lagos.

The nurse, the only Nigerian fatality from the disease which has killed over 900 people in four West African countries, was exposed to the virus at a health facility Sawyer was taken before his death.

The nurse’s family were not the first to flee from quarantine. In Sierra Leone, health ministry data and officials, dozens of people confirmed by laboratory tests to have Ebola are now unaccounted for.

http://xclusiveafrica.blogspot.com/2014/08/ebola-family-of-dead-nigerian-nurse-on.html

 

[ctg]

Liberia has announced it is to receive doses of an experimental Ebola drug and give it to two sick doctors, making them the first Africans to receive some of the scarce treatment in a spiralling outbreak.

The US government confirmed that it had put Liberian officials in touch with the maker of ZMapp and referred additional questions to the manufacturer. In a statement, the California-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical said that in responding to a request from an unidentified west African country it had run out of its supply of the treatment.

The news came amid growing anger over the fact that the only people to receive the experimental treatment so far had been westerners: two Americans and a Spaniard, all of whom were evacuated to their home countries from Liberia.

On Monday the World Health Organisation said 1,013 people had died in the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. Authorities had recorded 1,848 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of the disease, the UN health agency said. The updated WHO tally includes figures from 7-9 August when 52 more people died and 69 more were infected.

There is no Ebola vaccine or treatment available but there are several in development besides ZMapp. That treatment is so new that it has not been tested for safety or effectiveness in humans. The company has said it would take months to produce even modest quantities.

It was unclear how much of the treatment would be sent to Liberia.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...ria-says-experimental-drug-on-the-way-from-us

 

[SJ]

Näkisin, että lääkärit on sekä tärkeimpiä henkilöitä tuolla ja samalla yksi uhanalaisin ammattiryhmä, joten heille kannattaa antaakin uusi mahdollisuus.

 

[ctg]

Kanada väittää että heillä tuhannelle viidelle sadalle ihmiselle kokeellinen rokote. http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/canada-heeft-vaccin-tegen-ebola

Just how much vaccine Canada has is a bit of a guess. The product hasn't been tested yet in people, so it's not known how much vaccine an individual would need to be protected. For the time being, the size of a dose is being extrapolated from the research that has been done on primates.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/canada...o-west-african-effort-1.1955863#ixzz3ADb765Li

Kysymys, mistä kanada sai käsiinsä West Afrika strainin?

13 tapausta Nigeriassa. http://virologydownunder.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/ebola-virus-disease-evd-2014-west.html

A pregnant woman who went for her usual check up at the First Consultant Hospital Obalande – same hospital that Patrick Sawyer was admitted – tested positive of the virus on Friday. She got infected after being treated by the same nurse, Obi Justina Ejelonu, who attended to the Liberian carrier, Patrick Sawyer.

Recall that two nurses came in direct contact with Mr. Sawyer and one of them died last week – the other nurse, Justina is still alive. The pregnant woman has since been quarantined at the mainland hospital where there is an isolation emergency centre for Ebola virus victims.

http://morenikejiblog.com/pregnant-...ebola-in-obalende-lagos/#sthash.byQC5QjU.dpuf

Obi Justina wrote: “I never contacted his fluids. I checked his vitals, helped him with his food (he was too weak)…..I basically touched where his hands touched and that’s the only contact. Not directly with his fluids. At a stage, he yanked off his infusion and we had blood everywhere on his bed…..but the ward maids took care of that and changed his linens with great precaution.”

http://www.frontpageafricaonline.co...-life-nurse-who-treated-sawyer-battling-ebola

Mielenkiintoinen tapaus sillä ensimmäinen sairastunut oli kaksi vuotias poika.

Researchers believe that the first human case of the Ebola virus disease leading to the 2014 outbreak was a 2-year-old boy who died on 6 December a few days after falling ill in the Guinean village of Guéckédou. A week later the same illness killed his mother, then his three year-old sister became ill and died, and then his grandmother. They all had fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, but it was as yet unknown what had caused their illness. Next two people who had attended the grandmother's funeral carried the disease to their village and a health worker carried it to yet another village. By the time that the disease had been identified in March, dozens of people were dead in eight Guinean villages and suspected cases were turning up in several neighboring countries

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world/africa/tracing-ebolas-breakout-to-an-african-2-year-old.html

 

[ctg]

Samoa's Ministry of Health says nearly 100 people have now been affected by a mystery virus.

Two people have also died from but authorities still aren't exactly sure what the virus is.

Samoan Ministry of Health's Dr Saaine Vaai told Pacific Beat patients are showing signs of two separate illnesses.

"Well initially we thought we were seeing acute fever and rash, which is one of the things we do look for," she said.

"But as of Saturday we did get the confirmation of some of the specimens that we sent out for chikungunya.

"We're still waiting for other specimen confirmation."

In neighbouring American Samoa there have been more than 300 confirmed cases of chikungunya and authorities say a traveller between the two countries brought some strain of the virus to Samoa.

Dr Vaai says a public campaign to raise awareness about the outbreak and educate people about precautions to take has begun.

"This is the first time that we've have had this virus in the country and we are working with experts from WHO (World Health Organisation) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community to control it," she said.

Officials say five people have been admitted to hospital with symptoms of the virus.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-12/nearly-100-affected-by-mystery-virus-in-samoa/5664812

 

[ctg]

 

[JOKO]

Miten tuo ei ole vielä levinnyt suurempiin kaupunkeihin?

 

[ctg]

Miten tuo ei ole vielä levinnyt suurempiin kaupunkeihin?

Eikö 20 miljoonainen Lagos ole tarpeaksi suuri kaupunki?

 

[JOKO]

Eikö 20 miljoonainen Lagos ole tarpeaksi suuri kaupunki?

Jaa, se on jo siellä. Tullut luettua uutiset huonosti.

 

[ctg]

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is so out of control that governments there have revived a disease-fighting tactic not used in nearly a century: the “cordon sanitaire,” in which a line is drawn around the infected area and no one is allowed out.


Cordons, common in the medieval era of the Black Death, have not been seen since the border between Poland and Russia was closed in 1918 to stop typhus from spreading west. They have the potential to become brutal and inhumane. Centuries ago, in their most extreme form, everyone within the boundaries was left to die or survive, until the outbreak ended.

Plans for the new cordon were announced on Aug. 1 at an emergency meeting in Conakry, Guinea, of the Mano River Union, a regional association of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries hardest hit by Ebola, according to Agence France-Presse. The plan was to isolate a triangular area where the three countries meet, separated only by porous borders, and where 70 percent of the cases known at that time had been found.

Troops began closing internal roads in Liberia and Sierra Leone last week. The epidemic began in southern Guinea in December, but new cases there have slowed to a trickle. In the other two countries, the number of new cases is still rapidly rising. As of Monday, the region had seen 1,848 cases and 1,013 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, although many experts think that the real count is much higher because families in remote villages are avoiding hospitals and hiding victims.

Officials at the health organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have experts advising the countries, say the tactic could help contain the outbreak but want to see it used humanely.

“It might work,” said Dr. Martin S. Cetron, the disease center’s chief quarantine expert. “But it has a lot of potential to go poorly if it’s not done with an ethical approach. Just letting the disease burn out and considering that the price of controlling it — we don’t live in that era anymore. And as soon as cases are under control, one should dial back the restrictions.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/s...-countries-cordon-off-ebola-racked-areas.html

Mr Sawyersin saastuttama hoitsu on karannut!!!! Ensin lähti perhe, nyt hän. Tulee mieleen montakohan ihmistä saa ebolan hänen karkumatkallaan? http://reportingnigeria.com/2014/08...se-flees-quarantine-makes-contact-20-persons/

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — A second leading Sierra Leone doctor has succumbed to the Ebola epidemic sweeping across West Africa, dealing another blow to the country’s faltering efforts to stem the disease.

Dr. Modupeh Cole, 56, died Wednesday at the Ebola treatment center operated by Doctors Without Borders in the northeastern town of Kailahun, officials at the health ministry said.

He had apparently been infected while seeing a patient at the country’s leading hospital, Connaught Hospital, here in the capital, officials said. The patient later tested positive for Ebola.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/world/africa/ebola-claims-another-sierra-leone-doctor.html?_r=0

 

[hessukessu]

Mitähän pyörii ihmisellä päässään, kun lähtee pakoon sairaalasta saatuaan Ebolan? Sanooko joku taikausko primitiivi-ihmiselle, että pitää mennä viidakkoon tappamaan neitsyitä tai muuta kivaa, jotta pelastuu vai mikä ihmeen järki tuossa on?!?

 

[ctg]

Photo: Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty Images

A member of Doctors Without Borders with protective gear at Donka Hospital in Conakry, Guinea.

Earlier this year, on 23 March, the World Health Organization issued an alert reporting that 29 people had died after contracting the Ebola virus in the West African country of Guinea. The WHO alert marked the first official confirmation of what has become the worst outbreak of the disease, which has now claimed over 1000 lives.

For diseases that can spread rapidly like Ebola, early detection is crucial. There is still no cure or effective treatment against the Ebola virus, so isolating patients is the only way of avoiding an epidemic. Any methods or tools that could speed up the detection of outbreaks, even if only by a few days, could be a huge help in containing the disease.

That's exactly what HealthMap is trying to do. HealthMap is a website that tracks infectious diseases using specialized algorithms to make sense of information from news reports, social networks, and more official data from governments and organizations like the WHO. In the recent Ebola crisis, HealthMap spotted a news report describing a "mystery hemorrhagic fever" that had killed several people in Guinea. A purple dot immediately popped up on the site's disease-tracking map, prompting HealthMap staff to start looking into the report. That was on 14 March, or nine days before the WHO sounded its alarm.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/diagnostics/healthmap-algorithm-ebola-outbreak

 

[ctg]

Mitähän pyörii ihmisellä päässään, kun lähtee pakoon sairaalasta saatuaan Ebolan? Sanooko joku taikausko primitiivi-ihmiselle, että pitää mennä viidakkoon tappamaan neitsyitä tai muuta kivaa, jotta pelastuu vai mikä ihmeen järki tuossa on?!?

Kaksi asiaa, yksi on virus joka taudin loppupuolella on joidenkin sorsien mukaan ottanut vallan ihmisestä. Toinen on pelko kuolemasta ja siitä mitä hän voi aiheuttaa taudin loppupuolella. Jos virusteoria on oikea, niin ebola yrittää löytää kontaktia samalla tavalla kuin amazoniassa oleva sieni tekee muurahaisille muuttaessaan heidät zombeiksi (katso mr sawyear). En usko että minun tarvitsee sanoa yhtään enempää jos tuo on totta, mutta jos tuo hoitsu pelkää kuolemaansa ja potee synnin tuskia, niin voihan se olla että hän yrittää järjestää kuolemansa jossain missä se ei aiheuta harmia kenellekkään. Ongelma tuossa on se että ebola pysyy erittäin virulenttina neljä viikkoa kuoleman jälkeen. Joten kysymys kuuluu minne sä menet pakoon 20 miljoonaisessa kaupungissa ilman että sä saastutat ketään?

 

[ctg]

Albanian police arrested 40 illegal immigrants, five of whom are suspected of being infected with the disease. They were taken to a local hospital where they will be examined. The immigrants are from the African country of Eritrea, where there have been no confirmed cases of ebola so far. They first arrived to Greece, and then reached the territory of Albania, which is usually used as a transit to Western Europe.

RSOE

14 people in Serbia were put under surveillance because of the possibility of infection with ebola. They are persons who have returned from Africa, mainly from Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Upon arrival at the airport such passengers undergo health checks and within 24 hours they are advised to seek epidemiologist advice to monitor their condition for 21 days, the incubation period of the disease.

RSOE

Zaire Strainin RO on väitetty olevan 2 - 7 eli jokaisella sairastuneella on mahdollisuus saastuttaa kahdesta seitsämään ihmistä.

 

[SJ]

Mitähän pyörii ihmisellä päässään, kun lähtee pakoon sairaalasta saatuaan Ebolan? Sanooko joku taikausko primitiivi-ihmiselle, että pitää mennä viidakkoon tappamaan neitsyitä tai muuta kivaa, jotta pelastuu vai mikä ihmeen järki tuossa on?!?

Kun kyseessä on Läntinen Afrikka, niin sairaalasta livistäminen voi olla ihan looginen juttu. Tai pikemminkin logiikan seuraaminen voi olla parempi jättää tekemättä. Mutta en sinällään käyttäisi sanaa "primitiivi", se kun viittaa johonkin kehittymättömään, mistä ei ole kyse. Siellä valitettavasti se kehitys on mennyt hieman toisella tavalla kuin täällä...

Ja tosiaankin, niin tuolla noituus on ihan yleinen uskonto ja siihen uskovat, uskovat ihan siinä missä muslimi tai kristitty.

 

[ctg]

GENEVA — West Africa’s deadly Ebola epidemic is probably much worse than the world realizes, with health centers on the front lines warning that the actual numbers of deaths and illnesses are significantly higher than the official estimates, the World Health Organization said. So far, 2,127 cases of the disease and 1,145 deaths have been reported in four nations — Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — the W.H.O announced Friday. But the organization has also warned that the actual number is almost certainly higher, perhaps by a very considerable margin. “Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak,” the group said in a statement on Thursday.

The epidemic is still growing faster than efforts to keep up with it, and it will take months before governments and health workers in the region can get the upper hand, Joanne Liu, the president of Doctors Without Borders, said on Friday, calling conditions on the ground “like a war.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/world/africa/ebola-epidemic-who-health-crisis-west-africa.html

Migrants storm border fences with ladders to try to enter Melilla. Jesus Blasco de Avellaneda/Reuters

 

[Tetra]

Mikä tämän hetkisestä ebola epidemiasta tekee niin hyvin levinneen?