Health

For $34 (plus $5.49 shipping), you can purchase a personal protective kit on Amazon that will probably do nothing to protect you against Ebola. Fortunately, there hasn't been an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. and your chances of catching it—even without the kit—are virtually zero. But that hasn't stopped sales of this kind of equipment from skyrocketing in the past month. Sales of the kit—which includes a full-body suit, eye protection, two surgical masks, two pairs of gloves, booties, and duct tape—jumped 393 percent on Amazon following the diagnosis of the first Ebola case in New York City on Thursday evening. Sales of one body suit skyrocketed 131,000 percent in 24 hours after the diagnosis of the first Ebola patient in the U.S. The attempt to make money off of panic surrounding new disease outbreaks is nothing new: The H1N1 outbreak in 2009 resulted in the sale of products like "Tamiflu" pills from India and "magic wands," while the SARS epidemic in 2003 led companies to hike the price of face masks. "[What we're seeing with Ebola] fits into previous outbreaks," said Thomas Bollyky, global health, economics, and development senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The necessary ingredients to this type of profiteering are twofold: panic and novelty. In times of uncertainty, people search out information, and if they're still nervous, they'll search it out from unconventional sources, which are what's happening here." The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission are actively monitoring fraudulent claims and urging consumers to report any they might encounter. If there is an express or implied claim that the product prevents or treats Ebola, that would be cause for intervention, as there are currently no FDA-approved vaccines or prescription or over-the-counter drugs to fight the virus.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Oct.2014

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The number of the people infected with Ebola virus has exceeded 10,000, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) figures show. The UN health agency said on Saturday that the number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases has risen to 10,141. The disease has already claimed 4,922 lives. New figures reflect no change in Liberia’s case toll, likely due to many people having been unable or too frightened to seek medical care. Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia have taken the brunt of the spread of the disease, which is running amok in West Africa. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, and sweat. It has killed around two-thirds of those it has infected over the last four decades, with two outbreaks registering fatality rates approaching 90 percent. The media hype surrounding the epidemic, however, comes at a time when thousands of people in Africa and other parts of the world fall victim to malnutrition and contagious diseases on an almost daily basis. Mainstream Western media, though, address very little attention to such issues.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.Oct.2014

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Two US states have ordered a mandatory quarantine for medics who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa. Speaking at a joint press conference in Manhattan on Friday, the governors of New Jersey and New York announced a 21-day quarantine for all doctors and other travellers who have had contact with people infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa. “These actions that we are taking are necessary to protect the health of the people of New Jersey and New York,” said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. “Governor Cuomo and I agreed quarantine was the right way to go. We have the legal authority to do it. We are doing it.”They also announced additional screening protocols at JFK and Newark international airports. “A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough. This is too serious a public health situation. I think increasing the screening procedures is necessary and reduces the risk to New Yorkers and people in New Jersey,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.The governors made the decision a day after Dr. Craig Spencer tested positive for Ebola upon returning to New York after treating patients in Guinea.Health officials are trying to locate every person that came into contact with him.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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Mali's president has said he remained calm after revelations that a two-year-old girl infected with Ebola travelled on public transport while contagious, stating that her journey and potential contacts had already been traced. The girl travelled hundreds of kilometres through Mali by bus - including a stop in the capital Bamako - potentially exposing many people to the virus, before she died in the western town of Kayes on Friday. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said that the girl's grandmother had made a mistake by going to a funeral in Guinea, where more than 900 people have died of Ebola, and bringing her back. "We are paying dearly for this," he said. "But I think this will cause more fear than anything else. The case was quickly contained. We will do everything we can to avoid panic," he told France's RFI radio station. Keita said landlocked Mali would not close its border with Guinea. "Guinea is Mali's neighbour. We have a shared border that we did not close and we will not close," he said. Land-locked Mali relies on the ports of neighbouring Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast as gateways for much of its import needs. Health experts said the girl had Ebola-like symptoms and travelled for four days before she was eventually diagnosed with the disease on October 23. Ebola victims are contagious as soon as symptoms show. Local and international Ebola experts are sending teams to Mali to try to contain the outbreak in the sixth West African nation to record Ebola this year.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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Africa is really big. It's bigger than not only the United States but all of North America.

Yet judging by the reactions of some Americans, it would seem that Africa were nothing but a small country, and any travel there means you likely will get Ebola.

In reality, only five countries in Africa have had Ebola cases in the current outbreak. All of them -- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone -- are located in the western part of the continent, and Nigeria and Senegal have since been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization after going six weeks without any new cases.

The United States, meanwhile, is still treating two nurses who contracted Ebola after they treated a Dallas patient with the virus.

Nevertheless, Ebola-free African countries have been hit by ignorance, with tourists canceling safaris to places like Kenya, and academic institutions in the United States postponing visits. Even within the United States, individuals of African descent from places like Rwanda are facing discrimination by people who believe they may carry Ebola.

"The tragedy of Ebola goes far beyond the heartbreaking suffering of the people in hardest-hit West Africa," Ashish Sanghrajka, president of Florida-based Big Five Tours and Expeditions, told The Los Angeles Times. "Behind the scenes, another lesser known level of devastation is taking place. Tourism to Africa’s great wildlife destinations including Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and Botswana is in free-fall, as travelers scheduled to go on safari holidays cancel in droves."

Below are some ways Ebola paranoia is affecting Ebola-free countries. The countries that have had Ebola cases -- even the ones that have been declared Ebola-free in recent days -- are red. The country being referenced is blue.

ETHIOPIA: Three students who had recently returned from a mission trip to Ethiopia set off Ebola fears at an Oklahoma high school. On Monday, 18 students refused to show up for class after rumors circulated on social media. "Our students were not exposed to Ebola," said the school superintendent Dr. Kent Holbrook. "There was no person that was sick on the trip. There was no person sick [in] Ethiopia while they were there. There was no person on the plane." T.J. Helling, the youth pastor who organized the trip, also lamented that the three students were being ostracized. "They did more in the last ten days then post people do in their lifetime for other people. We need to remember that we're here to encourage them and support them. Not beat them down,” Helling said.

KENYA: Kenya is one of Africa's tourism hot spots, and it's been suffering from geographic ignorance during the Ebola outbreak. Blake Fleetwood, of Cook Travel in New York, told the Associated Press in September that he has had 14 groups cancel their safaris in Kenya or South Africa. Some of his clients, he said, "figure somebody from Sierra Leone is going to go to Morocco and the infection is going to spread through the continent."

In the United States, the University of New Mexico canceled a trip for 24 students to go to Kenya to work on various health projects. And in West Virginia, an elementary school teacher who went on a mission trip to Kenya with her church will have to stay home for three weeks -- the time during which Ebola symptoms may appear -- and is cleared by several doctors.

RWANDA: Two students who had moved from Rwanda and were ready for a fresh start at their new school in Maple Shade, New Jersey, are now being kept home due to parents' fears about Ebola. "Anybody from that area should just stay there until all this stuff is resolved. There's nobody affected here let's just keep it that way,” said parent John Povlow, ignoring the fact that New Jersey is actually closer to Texas -- where there have been cases of Ebola -- than Rwanda is to West Africa. The students' enrollment became an issue after the school district notified teachers, and word then leaked out to parents. According to Fox 29, the family has agreed to keep their children home for 21 days.

On Sunday, Rwanda announced that it would be putting travelers coming from the United States and Spain through special screening to test for Ebola. The country has now backtracked on that measure, though.

SOUTH AFRICA: A North Carolina teacher who recently returned from a mission trip in South Africa is being barred from coming back to work for three weeks because people are afraid she may have Ebola. "We just feel like we have to err on the side of caution," said Sonya Cox, a member of the school board. Another community member said he thought it was "a bad mistake, an unwise choice" that the teacher went on that trip.

South Africa also has a bustling tourism industry, and the World Bank recently concluded that a drop in activity due to Ebola fears could have "significant implications for economic growth."

UGANDA: School officials in Catoosa County, Georgia, are trying to reassure parents about two students who are returning from a church mission trip in Uganda. Summer Hennessee, a parent with children at the school, said she didn't want them to be "susceptible" to something they might catch while passing through an airport. School officials put out a statement pointing out that Uganda is 3,000 miles from the Ebola hot zone in West Africa.

In Pewaukee, Wisconsin, four families kept their children at home when the school recently hosted a priest and a teacher from their sister campus in Uganda.
"I don't think people know that Uganda is approximately 3,000 miles away from where West Africa and other outbreaks are," said Pewaukee Public Schools Superintendent Dr. JoAnn Sternke.

ZIMBABWE: The country has already lost about $6 million in tourism revenue as a result of people canceling their trips over Ebola fears, according to Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke. "We have had cancellations (for paid for bookings). People had paid for holidays in Zimbabwe and are demanding their monies back," said Kaseke.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Oct.2014

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