Health

A Doctors Without Borders physician who recently returned to New York after treating Ebola patients in West Africa has tested positive for the disease, the New York Times reported on Thursday. The doctor, identified as Craig Spencer, was working for the humanitarian organisation in Guinea, one of three West African nations hardest hit by the Ebola virus.  Spencer, 33, was rushed by ambulance to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, a designated Ebola centre, after reporting he had a 39.4-Celsius (103-degrees Fahrenheit) fever and diarrhoea, city officials said. “We can safely say that it is a very brief period of time that the patient has had symptoms,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference earlier in the day. A photo posted on Facebook of Craig Spencer in protective clothing in Guinea, where he treated Ebola patients for the humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders. De Blasio said Spencer had described in great detail where he was in the last few days and with whom he had contact. Spencer had not been back to his hospital job or seen patients since returning from West Africa last Friday, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center said on Thursday. But city officials say he had visited a city park, had a meal at a restaurant, been to a Brooklyn bowling alley, taken at least three subway trains and been for a 3-mile run since his return

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Oct.2014

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Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola on Thursday, becoming the sixth West African country to be touched by the worst outbreak on record of the haemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 4,900 people. Mali's Health Minister Ousmane Kone told state television that the patient in the western town of Kayes was a two-year-old girl who had recently arrived from neighbouring Guinea, where the outbreak began. "The condition of the girl, according to our services, is improving thanks to her rapid treatment," the minister told state television. A health ministry official, who asked not to be identified, said the girl's mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the baby was brought by relatives to the Malian capital Bamako, where she stayed for 10 days in the Bagadadji neighbourhood before heading to Kayes. A ministry statement said the girl, who came from the Guinean town of Kissidougou, was admitted at the Fousseyni Daou hospital in Kayes on Wednesday night, where she was promptly tested for Ebola.

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Ngwa Bertrand

24.Oct.2014

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Two people in Sierra Leone have died in a riot sparked by health workers attempting to take a blood sample from an elderly woman suspected to be infected with Ebola. At least two people have died and 10 others wounded during clashes between security forces and a machete-wielding mob in the eastern town of Koidu on Tuesday, hospital doctors said on Wednesday. “Two bodies are now at the mortuary. I cannot say whether they have bullet wounds or what caused their deaths as the corpses have not ... been examined [yet],” said one of the doctors. The group of men successfully prevented the medical doctors from drawing blood from a 90-year-old woman, who was the mother of a youth leader, to test for the deadly Ebola virus. “Ebola contact tracers visited the house of a prominent youth leader to take a blood sample of his ailing 90-year-old mother but were barred by a gang of youths” who said the woman did not have the disease, an eyewitness said. Police are on the lookout for the son of the elderly woman, a youth leader named Adamu Eze, who commands wide support in the town and is thought to have gone into hiding. Health organizations say the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected over 6,000 in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea, killing nearly half of them. In Sierra Leone alone, the epidemic has claimed nearly 1,200 lives as of October 14, according to latest World Health Organization figures.Globally, more than 4,500 people have died from the disease.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

22.Oct.2014

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A third United Nations employee has been killed by the deadly Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone. According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday, a driver for the UN Women agency, succumbed to the virus over the weekend in Sierra Leone. A statement by the UN Women agency said that the deceased who had been a driver for the agency since 2005 passed away on Saturday following testing positive for the virus.    He was quarantined on October 14 following his wife showing symptoms of the virus. The wife is still under care at an Ebola treatment center and a UN medical team is trying to trace all the persons who came into contact with the man. Earlier this month, a Sudanese UN health worker died in Germany after caring for Ebola victims in Liberia. 
And the first UN staffer casualty was a Liberian woman who had worked for the peacekeeping mission in Liberia for nearly a decade. She fell ill on September 20 and died on September 22.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Oct.2014

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The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States last month brought with it a fair share of panic to American shores, with questions raised about travel bans on the West African nations hit hardest by the disease and airport screening to find and isolate those who are already sick. But it's worth remembering that this panic may cut both ways. According to the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda, the tiny land-locked East African nation has begun screening passengers from the United States and Spain for the deadly virus. From a note on the embassy's Web site:   Visitors who have been in the United States or Spain during the last 22 days are now required to report their medical condition — regardless of whether they are experiencing symptoms of Ebola — by telephone by dialing 114 between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for the duration of their visit to Rwanda (if less than 21 days), or for the first 21 days of their visit to Rwanda. Rwandan authorities continue to deny entry to visitors who traveled to Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, or Sierra Leone within the past 22 days. The screening measures have been in place for two days, and images apparently showing the screening forms have been posted on Twitter. Rwanda is far, far away from the West African nations that have experienced the worst of the crisis, yet it is taking no chances: In August, it banned all travelers who had visited Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in the 22 days preceding their travel.Rwanda's decision seems to be the result of a number of Ebola cases in the United States and Spain in recent weeks. However, there may be an ulterior motive: In New Jersey, two exchange students from Rwanda were recently kept away from school because of the time they had spent in Africa – even though Rwanda is about twice as far away from the Ebola-affected West African states as New Jersey is from Dallas.

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Oct.2014

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The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday. Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler's temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11. Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson international airports. Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. But lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too. Some lawmakers have also called for more restrictions, such as suspending visas or simply denying entry at ports for citizens from the three countries. Jeh Johnson, secretary of Homeland Security, announced that travelers from West Africa must arrive at one of the five airports starting Wednesday. "We are working closely with the airlines to implement these restrictions with minimal travel disruption," Johnson said. "If not already handled by the airlines, the few impacted travelers should contact the airlines for rebooking, as needed." Key Republicans offered muted praise, but pressed for stricter travel restrictions. "In addition to requiring all travelers from at-risk countries to fly through airports with enhanced screening measures in place, I continue to call on the administration to suspend all visas from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee. The head of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said a "real solution" is to deny entry to anyone from the three countries under a provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. "President Obama has a real solution at his disposal under current law and can use it at any time to temporarily ban foreign nationals from entering the United States from Ebola-ravaged countries," Goodlatte said. "The vast majority of Americans strongly support such a travel moratorium and I urge the President to take every step possible to protect the American people from danger." But Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said steering travelers through the five airports is a sensible precaution. "As agreed upon by experts in both the public health and transportation communities, issuing a blanket travel ban would not only be counterproductive, but it would also irresponsibly impede getting much-needed supplies and relief to the countries that need it most," Conyers said. Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group for all aspects of travel, praised the move to calm travel concerns while avoiding a complete travel ban. "The Obama administration continues to heed the counsel of an overwhelming consensus of health and security experts, and resist calls for any sort of travel ban on the grounds that it will be counterproductive to efforts to contain Ebola," Dow said. A Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, who became the first person diagnosed with the disease in the U.S. after arriving in Dallas on Sept. 20, had a temperature of 97.3 degrees, but didn't tell airport officials in Monrovia, Liberia, that he carried a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola. He died Oct. 8 and two nurses who treated him have become infected. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said the enhanced screening adds a layer of protection against Ebola entering the country. "The Department of Homeland Security's policy to funnel all passengers arriving from Ebola hotspots to one of these five equipped airports is a good and effective step towards tightening the net and further protecting our citizens," Schumer said. Obama and Johnson each have said they will continue to monitor travel restrictions for possible changes. "We are continually evaluating whether additional restrictions or added screening and precautionary measures are necessary to protect the American people and will act accordingly," Johnson said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Oct.2014

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