Ebola outbreak - general thread #1

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oh_gal

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There's no story on CNN yet...only the headline. Patient recently returned from West Africa.
www.cnn.com
 
It's Mt Sinai in New York. Pt. presented with very high fever, severe GI distress. No other comment at this time.

Oh Good Lord in Heaven, if this is here this way...without the whole medevac and Emory Uni and CDC, it's time to really be scared...

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Herding Cats

ETA: From Fox, Neil Cavuto's financial show
 
I wonder how long it takes to get results of the test back. Seems like it shouldn't take long, but what do I know?
 
Ruh roh..

Mt Sinai Hospital is a little too close for comfort. :gasp:
 
I saw an earlier report that 300 health workers and members of the Peace Corps have been pulled from several African countries and are returning to the US. I am crossing my fingers because that seems very SCURRY. :panic:



http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/08/ebola_forces_300_peace_corps_v.html

Ebola forces 300 Peace Corps volunteers from 3 West African nations...



CHICAGO — Families in the United States expect to be reunited as early as this weekend with some of the more than 300 Peace Corps volunteers being evacuated from three West African nations affected by the worst recorded Ebola outbreak in history.



A Peace Corps spokeswoman said the organization is working to bring the volunteers home as quickly as possible. The group's medical officers are assessing volunteers before their departure as a precaution. The organization is advising them to monitor their health, including checking their temperature twice daily per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. The medical officers will check with returning volunteers and be on call if they experience symptoms or have concerns.

Two workers who have been exposed to the virus still were being monitored.

"The two Peace Corps volunteers who have had contact with an individual who later died of the virus are not symptomatic and are currently isolated and under observation," said spokeswoman Shira Kramer. "When they receive medical clearance for return to the U.S., we will work with them to travel safely back."
 
I don't understand why they aren't quarantining all the people being returned BEFORE they come back to the US.
I read The Hot Zone eons ago and it scared the bejeebus outta me.
 
There have been several cases in Africa where initial tests where negative, but subsequent tests came back positive. I hope they keep this person isolated until they are sure.
 
A 75-year-old Spanish priest, Miguel Pajares, who is currently isolated in a medical clinic in Liberia is suffering from the Ebola virus, Spanish authorities confirmed on Tuesday.

http://www.thelocal.es/20140805/confirmed-spanish-priest-ebola-liberia

He is likely to be flown home to Spain after saying he feels he has been abandoned by his home country and 73,000 Spaniards signed an online petition to bring him back to Europe.

'Brother Pajares, belonging to the Madrid-based Juan Ciudad Foundation and the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios, told Spanish news agency EFE by telephone that he felt “abandoned” in Liberia and wished to be flown back to Spain: “I’m frankly in a bad way. I can’t lift my head up”.

Adriana Castro, a spokeswoman for the Juan Ciudad Foundation told The Spain Report that Brother Pajares, who is very weak and has a strong fever, has asked to be flown to Spain for treatment and that they were waiting for a reply from Spain’s Foreign Office and Health Ministry.'

Some European airlines are cancelling all flights between Liberia and Spain.

http://www.thespainreport.com/10252/spanish-catholic-missionary/
 
I hope they have a very good quarantine unit, there is no treatment, it is incurable.
This Ebola virus outbreak really is becoming the worst ever. ....:hills:
It is too horrible to even think about, I feel very sorry for the victims, horrible!!........:(
 
It has just been announced that Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares, has died at the hospital in Madrid, Spain, to which he had been evacuated.

'The Health Ministry said he was being treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, manufactured by U.S. company Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Two U.S. aid workers infected by the disease have shown some signs of improvements since being given the drug.'

Rest in peace, brother Pajares.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-health-ebola-spain-idUSKBN0GC0PQ20140812
 
It has just been announced that Spanish missionary Miguel Pajares, has died at the hospital in Madrid, Spain, to which he had been evacuated.

'The Health Ministry said he was being treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, manufactured by U.S. company Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Two U.S. aid workers infected by the disease have shown some signs of improvements since being given the drug.'

Rest in peace, brother Pajares.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-health-ebola-spain-idUSKBN0GC0PQ20140812

oh no!

thanks zwiebel for the sad update. for me, this is sadder than the death of robin williams...
 
Seems that ZMapp works, but selectively, or only early in the disease process. But, I am glad that Br. Parajes was able to be home to pass away.

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Herding Cats
 
Seems that ZMapp works, but selectively, or only early in the disease process. But, I am glad that Br. Parajes was able to be home to pass away.

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Herding Cats

I think age makes a big difference. Priest was older than the two Americans.
 
It seemed appropriate to have a general thread about this outbreak which has sadly affected so many people and is unprecedented in its scope.

I am a little surprised that interest in the outbreak which is nowhere near abating seems to have dwindled to nothing now that the US sufferers are back home and on the mend.

The latest WHO update pulls no punches about the fact that the outbreak has overwhelmed both local and international efforts and that the figures for cases and deaths are almost certainly a huge underestimate.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/ebola/22-august-2014/en/


WHO says Ebola outbreak underestimated because:

  • Many families keep sick people at home, as there is no cure
  • Many health centres have closed because medical staff have fled
  • In Liberia, treatment centres are overwhelmed
  • The existence of "shadow-zones", areas where there are reports of Ebola but which cannot be accessed because of local resistance or lack of staff

For example in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, an Ebola treatment centre with 20 beds, which opened last week, was immediately overwhelmed with more than 70 patients.

In some rural areas, people are buried before being seen by PH or medics, thus potentially resulting in underestimated death figures. PH officials have taken to counting freshly dug graves in areas where Ebola is rumoured as a rough estimate of the death toll.

Because they know there is no cure, some families are loath to let their loved ones go to a distant impersonal treatment centre with the prospect of never seeing them again and knowing they will die alone and afraid with no human contact to ease their passing. They feel that their family members would rather die at home. Hugely dangerous given the features of the infection, but so understandable on a human level. What a choice to have to make.

On a more local level the latest suspected case in Ireland proved to be a false alarm, although this will be scant comfort to the victim's family since he was tested for Ebola following his death.

It is an interesting issue though - I have heard from a number of different sources that individuals showing symptoms which were extremely vague were treated as if they were definite, contagious sufferers of EVD. This resulted in them being put in isolation with no one wanting to have any contact with them. It later transpired (in some cases after the poor people had died) that they had a perfectly treatable condition and basically died due to panic and neglect. So in a way, they were also victims of the Ebola outbreak, even though they did not have EVD.
 
British ebola patient flying home:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28919831

The patient will be cared for at the Royal Free Hospital which has a special negative pressure bed/enclosure. It almost looks like the isolators used to prepare dangerous drugs, with special gloved sleeves built into the shell to allow nursing without contact or even having to share the same air space.

On a more worrying note, DR Congo announces the first two ebola deaths. They have had an outbreak of some serious illness over the past few weeks but had not diagnosed Ebola until now. They are not yet sure whether this outbreak is directly connected to the West Africa cases:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28922290

Update - the Health Minister in DR Congo says that one of the cases was the Sudanese strain and the other was a mix of Sudanese and Zaire. The Zaire strain is the most deadly and is the strain responsible for the West African outbreak.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/24/health-ebola-congodemocratic-idUSL5N0QU14820140824
 
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