Health

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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Canada has planned to ship 800 vials of its Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva to curb the outbreak of the disease. The experimental vaccines will be distributed by WHO in the countries most affected by the disease, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced. "The vaccine is undergoing clinical trials on humans at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the United States after showing promising results in animal testing," the agency explained. As the vaccine is experimental, researchers are not able to predict how many people could be immunized or treated. The vaccine was developed at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. More than 4,500 people, most of them in the West African countries, had lost their lives to Ebola which was first confirmed in March.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Oct.2014

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Nigeria has been declared officially free of Ebola after six weeks with no new cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Africa's most populous country won praise for its swift response after an infected Liberian diplomat brought the disease there in July.

"The average Nigerian is relieved ... a lot of people have been quite scared. Officials want people to celebrate but to remain cautious.

"Nigeria is a transport hub, and the virus can be brought back, and this is why officials are not taking any chances," Mutasa said.

Nigeria becomes the second country in west Africa to be declared Ebola free in the past week. On Friday, the UN health agency declared Senegal free of Ebola after it passed the 42 day landmark.

"WHO officially declares the Ebola outbreak in Senegal over and commends the country on its diligence to end the transmission of the virus," the WHO said.

In all, eight people died out of 20 confirmed cases in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos, and the oil hub of Port Harcourt, while nearly 900 people were monitored for signs of the disease.

More than 4,500 people have died and nearly 10,000 have been infected with the haemorrhagic fever, most of them in West Africa, since the start of the year.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Oct.2014

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Cannabis Sativa, Inc. CEO Gary Johnson believes marijuana is "potentially an actual cure" for the Ebola virus. And his medical director predicts it "will help the survival of this deadly disease."

“We actually believe we have efficacy with regard to treating Ebola," Johnson recently said. “I am not a snake oil salesman. I’m not. You know, I’m the former governor of New Mexico.”

David B. Allen of Cannabis Sativa argues that cannabinoids inhibit VEGF and other Cytokines, which is critical to countering the effecs of Ebola. "Cannabinoids are emerging as a new class of drugs that treat infections of bacteria, fungi and virus by different mechanisms of action not found in any other class of drug." he writes. "Cannabinoids inhibit many different virus strains from replicating."

Allen calls on the "medical community to start human trials on survivability of Ebola infected patients" using cannabinoids, specifically cannabidiol (CBD), because  "cannabis is so very safe especially under doctor supervision."

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Oct.2014

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News that vaccines to fight Ebola are being developed in Russia as earlier announced by the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova grabbed global media headlines and pushed the West to hasten up their own Ebola research. But which laboratory will be the first to get it to market? In recent days the World Health Organisation (WHO) has cited two experimental vaccines that have showed promising results when they were tested on lab monkeys. Both could one day help eradicate Ebola. The current outbreak has claimed more than 4,500 lives, mostly in West Africa. The first candidate vaccine has been named VSV-EBOV by scientists at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada, and will be licensed by the US firm NewLink Genetics.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Oct.2014

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The deadly Ebola disease could become the "definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation", the charity organization Oxfam says. Oxfam said on Saturday that more troops, financial support and medical staff should be given to the West African countries which are at the center of the epidemic. "We cannot allow Ebola to immobilize us in fear, but ... countries that have failed to commit troops, doctors and enough funding are in danger of costing lives," Oxfam’s Chief executive Mark Goldring said. The deadly disease has so far killed at least 4,555 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma announced that the country’s Defense Minister Alfred Paolo Conteh was given responsibility to battle the spread of Ebola. The death toll from the disease has risen to 1,200 in the country.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Oct.2014

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