EBOLA MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD July 2015

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MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD July 2015


MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD June 2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...A-DISCUSSION-THREAD-June-2015&highlight=ebola

MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD May 2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...ighlight=ebola

MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD April 2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...EAD-April-2015

MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD March 2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...ighlight=ebola

MAIN EBOLA DISCUSSION THREAD February 2015
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showt...-February-2015


Greetings, Everyone: Due to the intermittent reports on Ebola which are surfacing on a delayed basis Dennis recommended this should be a monthly thread.

If you post a stand alone thread on Main please double post it here so there is an archive that we can all research to find specific articles. Thank you. BREWER


Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.thebigwobble.org/2015/07/ebola-is-slowing-health-workers-storm.html

Thursday, 2 July 2015
Ebola is slowing : Health workers storm the Ministry of Health in Liberia as Ebola returns

Health workers stormed the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, demanding benefits as Liberia confirmed its second case of Ebola, seven weeks after the country was declared free of the virus. More than 100 Ebola center workers besieged the entrances to the building, defying police officers deployed there to quell the unrest.

"We suffered during Ebola, and they promised to pay $5,000 each," said Alice Tweh, who served as a nurse during the outbreak.

Protesters threatened to return Thursday.

"We need our money. They can't treat us like that.

People died, still they don't want to give our money," said Justin Rogers, another nurse. Miatta Gbanyan, deputy head of Liberia's Ebola Incidence Management Team, said the government has made hazard payments to nearly 12,500 health workers at Ebola treatment units.

Health Minister Bernice Dahn said 99% of those who worked in such units received hazard pay, according to the Associated Press.

Those who don't feel they've been paid adequately "should come forward" to the ministry, she added. The announcement of a second Ebola case in just two days shattered hopes Liberia had defeated the disease when it was declared free of the deadly virus May 9 by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Liberian officials said Wednesday the second case was found in the same village in Margibi County where Tuesday's case was confirmed in a teenager who died.

The latest patient was moved to Monrovia, Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said.

Update


Liberia Announces 2 More Confirmed Ebola Cases - NDTV "Liberia said Wednesday a teenager who died of Ebola fever had spread the virus to at least two more people, confirming the first outbreak of the tropical disease for months.

"Two more people have been confirmed positive.

These people had contact with the boy.

We are still waiting for more results of blood tests," said health official Cestus Tarpeh.

Tarpeh, a spokesman for the health department in Margibi County, where the 17-year-old got sick, told AFP a herbalist who had treated him had evaded the authorities and was on the run."

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Useful related pages on this site and why GOOGLE call it spamming!
People who visit The Big Wobble on a regular basis have enjoyed many back links to related material under each post.....This useful and free service has been criminalised by the powers that be at Google who believe I am spamming this website for financial gain.

Google and their 2 dimensional algorithm Pelican have been punishing The Big Wobble by up to 75% of lost clicks because they say by providing these related links, I am spamming my own site! It's called black hat SEO (search engine optimisation). So unfortunately from now on The Big Wobble will not be linking related material.

 

[bev]

These new cases in Liberia are worrisome. I'm afraid, with their social and infrastructure issues, we may see a new outbreak there, and possibly in the surrounding countries. I don't even know if the emergency treatment facilities and hospitals that were put up last year remain. Do the Doctors Without Borders or Samitaritan's Purse staff remain? How about our military?

The MSM reporting just kind of dropped off, so I appreciate you keeping up with this :-)

 

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These new cases in Liberia are worrisome. I'm afraid, with their social and infrastructure issues, we may see a new outbreak there, and possibly in the surrounding countries. I don't even know if the emergency treatment facilities and hospitals that were put up last year remain. Do the Doctors Without Borders or Samitaritan's Purse staff remain? How about our military?

The MSM reporting just kind of dropped off, so I appreciate you keeping up with this :-)

Greeting, bev: All good questions, and unfortunately I've no answers. The MSM has completely moved on. Take care. BREWER

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://frontpageafricaonline.com/in...e-in-denial-over-ebola-deaths-infections-pile

A Village in Denial Over Ebola - Deaths, Infections Pile

Written by FPA Reporter
Published: 03 July 2015

Scene from Nedowein, where a 17 year-old succumbed to the deadly Ebola virus outbreak this week
Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus
Adolphus Gbinee, Uncle of the late Abraham under quarantine said his nephew did not travel to any location outside the village before falling sick
Health workers protest in front of the Ministry of Health in Monrovia Wednesday

Scene from Nedowein, where a 17year-old succumbed to the deadly Ebola virus outbreak this week Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Adolphus Gbinee, Uncle of the late Abraham under quarantine said his nephew did not travel to any location outside the village before falling sick Health workers protest in front of the Ministry of Health in Monrovia Wednesday Health workers protest in front of the Ministry of Health in Monrovia Wednesday

Insider gives startling revelations on how deceased Ebola victim travelled to Lofa County and onward to neighboring guinea, dog theory looking slim

Monrovia - After being declared Ebola free, Liberia during the week reported two new confirmed cases of the deadly virus which ravaged the country after a case crossed over from neighboring Guinea in March of 2014. The joy of Liberians for being declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization (WHO) was cut short early during the week when specimen from a 17-year-old boy, Abraham Menaigai was confirmed Ebola positive.


Friday Nyanfor, 27, a friend to the late Abraham who lives a few meters away from his deceased friend house has tested positive and is currently under treatment at an Ebola Treatment Unit. Specimen collected from Abraham before burial proved positive and on Tuesday his body was exhumed and new sample extracted which again showed the same positive result.

Abraham’s uncle, Adolphus Gbinee currently under quarantine along with others told FrontPageAfrica Wednesday that his nephew did not travel to any location outside the village prior to falling sick. “He was a small boy and did not go anywhere; he only used to go help his mother sell on the market table, so if anyone is saying he traveled to Zorzor,that is false”, said Gbinee.

But an insider from the village has told FPA that contrary to the claim by the deceased’s uncle that the dead boy did not travel outside the village is a makeup to cover up the actual story. The source who spoke on the basis of anonymity stated that Abraham Menegai a student of the R. S Caudfield School located in the Smell-no Taste Community in Margibi County traveled to Zorzor on his school team to honor a football match but instead crossed over to a village in Guinea to meet some family members where he might have contracted the virus.

According to the source when Abraham got ill and returned to Margibi County his father (name not disclosed) decided to treat the sick boy through the help of a country doctor. “The parents don’t want to say the truth, that boy got the Ebola from Guinea when they went to Lofa County to play football game” said the source. The source continued that when the deceased along with his friends returned from Zorzor after the football match they were seen in group entertaining themselves, drinking palm wine.

The same source claimed that another friend of the deceased who name was not also disclosed has fled and gone into hiding in the Cotton Tree Community also in Margibi County.

“The parents don’t want to say the truth, that boy got the Ebola from Guinea when they went to Lofa County to play football game”. A source speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday

However, health authorities who have confirmed the new Ebola case say they are investigating to determine the source of this latest outbreak of the disease. Ebola claimed over 4,000 lives in Liberia during the outbreak in the country after the virus spread from Guinea in March 2014. Denial was one major causes of the rapid spread of the virus in 2014 with people constantly denying that a member of their family had died from the virus.

“The parents don’t want to say the truth, that boy got the Ebola from Guinea when they went to Lofa County to play football game” insider account from Nedowain, Margibi County Many sick people refused to be categorized as suspected cases of Ebola and some shunned Ebola Treatment units, preferring to be treated at home which contributed to widespread cases of the virus.

“I was with him when he said his stomach was hurting and when he died, I called the burial team and I was there when he was buried” said Gbinee. The villagers are all speaking of the deceased eating dog along with others but scientists are yet to provide any findings on the domestic animal being a carrier of the virus or a mode of transmission.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://frontpageafricaonline.com/in...0-suspected-carriers-after-second-ebola-death

Tracing 100 Suspected Carriers After Second Ebola Death
Written by Samwar S. Fallah, samwar.fallah@frontpageafricaonline.com
Published: 02 July 2015

Nedowein, Margibi County - There are growing fears that Liberia is heading for another nightmare with the deadly Ebola virus after another person has tested positive bringing the number to two confirmed cases since the country lost its Ebola free status as declared by the World health organization on May 9. A second confirmed Ebola case has been reported in the village ofNedowein in Margibi County raising fears that the virus is likely to spread further.


But on top of that contact tracers are vigorously parading the affected village in search of all that might have in contact with the two confirmed cases. Several contact tracing teams were spotted Wednesday in the affected village moving from door to door and talking with residents as the hunt for the source of the Ebola virus continues.

Dead Teen’s Friend Tests Positive

Friday Nyanfor, 27, friend to the late Abraham Menaigai, who lives few meters away from his deceased friend has tested positive and is currently under treatment at an Ebola Treatment Unit. Specimen collected from Abraham before burial proved positive and on Tuesday his body was exhumed and new sample extracted which again showed the same positive result.

Scene from Nedowein, where a 17year-old succumbed to the deadly Ebola virus outbreak this week

Scene from Nedowein, where a 17year-old succumbed to the deadly Ebola virus outbreak this week Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Tracers question residents at a quarantined home in Nendowein, Wednesday, the area where a 17 year-old died of the Ebola virus Adolphus Gbinee, Uncle of the late Abraham under quarantine said his nephew did not travel to any location outside the village before falling sick Health workers protest in front of the Ministry of Health in Monrovia Wednesday Health workers protest in front of the Ministry of Health in Monrovia Wednesday

In the village, the two confirmed Ebola cases are said to have no history of travel in recent weeks and Adolphus Gbinee, Uncle of the late Abraham currently under quarantine along with others told FrontPageAfrica Wednesday that his nephew did not travel to any location outside the village prior to falling sick. “He was a small boy and did not go anywhere, he only used to go help his mother sell on the market table, so if anyone is saying he traveled to Zorzor, that is false”, said Gbinee.

According to Gbinee, Abraham fell ill and was taken to the Unification Town Clinic where he was diagnosed with Malaria and treated before his death days later. “I was with him, he said his stomach was hurting and when he died, I called the burial team and I was there when he was buried”, Gbinee explained. Gbinee dispelled news that Abraham travelled to Zorzor, Lofa County along with his schoolmates for a sporting event.

“His school went there but he did not go, because he cannot play football, quizzing or anything, so there was no way he could have gone anywhere”, the Uncle narrated. A few meters from the house where Abraham took sick before he was taken to clinic, Friday Nyanfor has also tested positive and is now at the Ebola treatment unit.

According to Joyce Gbee, an occupant of the house in which Nyanfor was taken; health workers took specimen of Nyanfor and others on Tuesday before returning Wednesday to take him away. “He was here yesterday and the people came and took his blood, today they came for him” said Joyce. She confirmed that there was news that Nyanfor ate some of the dog which Abraham and others are also said to have eaten.

She named two other people, Cassius Kollie and a pregnant woman both said to have also eaten the dog and are still at large. Villagers told FPA that the pregnant woman is believed to have moved to Duazhon while others said she has gone to Marshall.

Clinic quarantined

The Unification Town Clinic, where Abraham is said to taken treatment prior to his death was quarantined with workers from the Global Communities visiting the clinic Wednesday afternoon to disinfest the facility. At the clinic Abraham who later tested positive was said to have been diagnosed of malaria. His friend Nyanfor who is alive also took treatment at another clinic, the Charlesville Clinic, according to Joyce. Villagers said there are more people who ate the dog and some have left for other locations.

Health workers protest

While the country struggles to trace the source of the new two confirmed cases, health workers have staged a protest at the Ministry of Health demanding hazard benefits. The protestors besieged the entrance to the building and forcibly made their way into the compound occupying the entire veranda of the building. Justice Minister Benedict Sannoh and senior police officials who had gone to the scene to persuade the protestors to move away could not succeed.

Some of the protesters held placards with inscription: “We will not agree to any negotiation, pay our money”. Others placard read: “Government send their children aboard during the Ebola time, pay our money”. Officials from the Ministry of Health during a press conference said they have made payments to health workers and called on those with concerns to present same to the Ministry.

Miatta Gbanyan, Deputy Head of Liberia’s Ebola Incidence Management Team said the government has made hazard payments to 12,449 health workers. “On average about 12,449 persons were paid monthly through the EERP grant across the country. September to December 2014 (1,108) and April 2015 (384) persons were paid per month across the ETUs”, she said.

The Health official said 8,551 routine healthcare workers from hospitals, health centers and clinics were paid while 1,743 response teams members were paid. Also, she said 1,048 contact traces, supervisors and monitors from 10 of the 15 counties with additional payment to be made to cover gaps in these counties. According to her, the government has made 79 death benefits payments to families of deceased health care workers. She said health workers recently received three months hazard payment from January to March 2015.

Scaring news

The second case of Ebola coupled with news that about 100 people made contacts with the late Abraham is raising fear that the deadly virus is nearing another crisis for the country. In 2014, a single case of Ebola from neighboring Guinea led to the catastrophe that rocked the country killing more than 4,000 people. It took huge international involvement and local efforts from health workers and communities to put the virus under control.

After Liberia was declared Ebola free in May, its neighbors, Sierra Leona and Guinea are still struggling to manage their respective outbreaks. The two new confirmed cases could be the start of another crisis for Liberia if not handled but health authorities are confident that the situation will be put under control.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://frontpageafricaonline.com/in...-ebola-fight-named-civil-servants-of-the-year

Two Doctors in Ebola Fight Named Civil Servants of the Year
Written by Al-Varney Rogers alvarney.rogers@frontpageafricaonline.com
Published: 23 June 2015

Monrovia - Two of Liberia’s leading doctors in the fight against Ebola Dr. Gabriel Gorbee Logan and Dr. Jerry Browne were on Tuesday recognized and honored as civil servants of the year. The both separately played a pivotal role in the fight against the Ebola virus; the pair defied the odds and braved the storm to save lives, when the world was running out of ideas to tackle the Ebola virus.


The Deputy Director at the Civil Service Agency Othello Weh presented a certificate of honor to the both doctors for going beyond the call of duty. Dr. Logan a father of three heads Bomi County Health Team though underfunded; he was responsible to manage and put under control the spread of the Ebola virus.

In 2014, Liberia’s capital which considerably had better infrastructure than the rest of the country was overwhelmed thus refusing cases from other counties and Bomi was no exception. With that Dr. Logan organized the County Health Team and decided to institute a full treatment in the community care center. The Ebola virus had no known treatment but a safe protocol was designed for Ebola prevention.

As the death toll increase Dr. Logan having knowledge of other infectious viruses with similar attribute of the Ebola virus; decided to apply antiviral drug Lamivudine 150 mg which proved to be a better option in saving lives. In no time people attending treatment at his center start coming out alive thus, reducing the death rate.

“When things get difficult it when you have the best ideas, I have been dealing with other infectious disease like Lassa fever which is brother of Ebola, so I decided to use the Lamivudine it proved to be a success,” Logan added. “This innovation and intervention brought relief, changed the situation and resulted in saving many lives,” CSA Deputy Director Weh said.

The honoring of the civil servants or public servants of the year is an annual event aimed at rewarding and appreciating employees who performed above and beyond the call of duty. For this year, the Civil Service as head of personnel management in government selected two public servants who met the criteria for recognition and appreciation. They are Dr. Gabriel Gorbee Logan and Dr. Jerry Brown.

In the midst of the Ebola crisis, Dr. Jerry Fahnlone Brown expanded the ELWA hospital facilities to include the Chapel, turning it into Ebola treatment center. Dr. Brown transformed the newly built kitchen and laundry into ETU, thus increasing the bed occupancy.

Brown became very progressive in training his staff to fight the disease, to extent that none of his staff fell victim to Ebola. It was reported that his center put out the largest number of survivors in the country, two hundred thirty two and a model for other hospitals in West Africa during the Ebola crisis.

“Therefore and considering the ingenuity, the innovation, the passion for the job and love for humanity, the civil service Agency recognizes and awards Dr. Jerry Fahnlone Brown,” Weh added. The honorees each received 1,000 United States but it was given, with fifty percent in Liberia Dollars.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion. Now that's a very scary number!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/10000-people-in-u-s-monitored-during-ebola-scare/

July 3, 2015, 9:38 AM
10,000 people in U.S. monitored during Ebola scare
By Rachael RettnerLivescience.com

From November to March 2014, more than 10,000 people in the U.S. were tested or monitored for Ebola. In this photo from Nov. 18, 2014, New York health officials tested the body of a woman who died of an apparent heart attack in Brooklyn for Ebola, since she had recently been in Guinea.
CBS NEW YORK

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More than 10,000 people in the United States were monitored for symptoms of Ebola this past fall and winter, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In late October, the CDC recommended that everyone in the United States who had possibly been exposed to Ebola -- including people returning from an Ebola-affected country, as well as those who cared for Ebola patients here -- be monitored for 21 days after their last exposure for symptoms of the disease.

Within a week, all 50 states were following these guidelines. The people being monitored took their own temperatures twice a day, and reported their health status to a public health official at least once daily. Those deemed at high risk for Ebola infection reported their health status twice daily, and had an official come by to check on them in person at least once a day.

From November to March, 10,344 people were each monitored for 21 days for symptoms of Ebola, according to the new report.

During an average week within that period, about 20 of the people being monitored (1.2 percent) reported having symptoms that could have been due to Ebola, with the highest number being reported in December. Nearly 40 people were tested for Ebola during their monitoring period. None tested positive for the disease. [What Are the Long-Term Effects of Ebola?]

Less than 1 percent had "incomplete monitoring," meaning that there were gaps in their monitoring of more than 48 hours.

"These results provide evidence of successful U.S. monitoring for Ebola," the researchers wrote in their report. "Jurisdictions demonstrated public health capacity to rapidly conduct and effectively monitor thousands of persons over a sustained period," they said.

"Given the complexity and amount of coordination of effort required, the Ebola monitoring program in the United States provided systemic evidence of the capability of state, territorial, and local health departments to ensure and protect the health of the U.S. public," the researchers said.

The study is published this week in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.theguardian.com/australi...ould-face-quarantine-or-jail-under-new-powers

Anyone suspected of having Ebola would face quarantine or jail under new powers

New biosecurity control orders allow health department to force people to be vaccinated or quarantined in emergency situations

Biosecurity researchers inside a laboratory in Geelong. Legislation for new human biosecurity control orders was passed by federal parliament on Wednesday.


Tuesday 12 May 2015 22.26 EDT

Anyone suspected of having a serious contagious disease such as Ebola could face five years in prison if they defy orders to stay at home.

New human biosecurity control orders enable a health department official to force anyone with signs or symptoms of a listed disease to isolate themselves or face arrest.

The director of human biosecurity can also order someone to be vaccinated or treated.

Government legislation setting up the orders, which can be in place for three months, cleared parliament on Wednesday, creating new rules aimed at preventing the spread of disease in both human populations and agriculture.

The government expects the human control orders to be “seldom used” but believes they are important to manage serious communicable diseases, especially in light of the recent Ebola epidemic.

Several people have arrived in Australia from Africa with Ebola symptoms since the disease took hold in 2014, but there have been no confirmed cases.

The legislation allows biosecurity officers to conduct searches without warrants in emergencies related to pests or disease.

The tougher measures were introduced to parliament by Labor in 2012 but lapsed when an election was called in 2013.

The government believes the new laws are vital to maximise Australia’s agricultural productivity and prevent significant damage to the sector. Australia’s agricultural exports were worth $39.4bn in 2013-14.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-d...eres-head-criticises-g7-over-ebola-joanne-liu

Médecins Sans Frontières head criticises G7 for lack of urgency over Ebola

MSF’s Joanne Liu says the G7 summit failed to produce any proposals for a rapid response to major epidemics in distant countries
Joanne Liu, the international president of MSF, says dealing with the outbreak of a disease like Ebola requires people with an ‘emergency mindset’.

Misha Hussain in Dakar

Tuesday 16 June 2015 02.00 EDT

Aid donors missed a golden opportunity at the G7 summit in Germany to lay out measures for a far more vigorous response to epidemics such as the Ebola outbreak, according to Joanne Liu, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“There were strong opening remarks from Angela Merkel at the G7, saying we have failed on Ebola, we take full responsibility, but at the end, the recommendations were all watered down,” said Liu.

“With Ebola, there was a fear factor. In September, the world held its breath as a huge terrible threat was over our heads. That sense of urgency has been lost, and I’m concerned things will not change.”

Ebola has killed more than 11,000 people in the three worst affected west African states of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia since March 2014.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) did not declare the Ebola outbreak a public health emergency until August, despite 60 different chains of transmission in Guinea and warnings from MSF four months earlier.

But Liu said tackling the outbreak was not the WHO’s sole responsibility. “Since the beginning I’ve been asking member states to show political responsibility in responding, but they didn’t and I think they’ve been let off the hook. It’s very convenient to have a scapegoat like WHO,” she said.

Member states have been let off the hook over the Ebola outbreak. It’s very convenient to have a scapegoat like WHO

Liu wrote to Britain’s chancellor, George Osbourne, before the meeting on 7-8 June stressing how disease control is a public good, but the G7 provided no concrete solutions for fighting epidemics, and showed little will to reform the WHO, despite criticising it heavily.

Liu said countries should be rewarded rather than punished for declaring an outbreak. Low-income countries, more prone to outbreaks, are hit the hardest by political and economic sanctions such as travel bans, she added.

“If states declared earlier, the machine could move faster. But you see it everywhere, cholera in Haiti, meningitis in Niger, measles in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo]. Each time we have to fight for them to declare, because they’re scared of the repercussions,” she said.

“I am absolutely convinced there should be financial and political incentives for states to declare. You shouldn’t be the pariah of the world if you say you have Ebola, but in reality this is what happens,” she said.

Liu is open to establishing a rapid response unit, proposed by health leaders ahead of the G7, with an “emergency mindset” working with an agency like the WHO to fight disease, but only if there is a paradigm shift in the way the organisation responds to outbreaks.

“In Canada, I’m an ER physician. My hospital director wouldn’t ask me to visit outpatients. They know where I’m best, in ER. Similarly, I would want only people with emergency mindsets, not developmental, to do emergency response.”

Ebola vaccines need to be ready before the start of the next epidemic, said Liu. However, she has reservations about measures to increase surveillance or build regional centres to test for infectious diseases.

“People have this fantasy that surveillance will help the next epidemic. The reality is, despite not having complete data, we still had enough to know that we had to scale up our response,” said Liu. “But we didn’t.”
Joanne Liu hugs Ebola survivor Evelyn Sonpon.
Joanne Liu hugs Ebola survivor Evelyn Sonpon. Photograph: Fernando Calero/MSF

Those countries with larger economies had to be prepared to move in quickly after an outbreak and get their hands dirty on the ground, said Liu. Such a response could encourage other states to step up.

“When President Obama pledged a 25-bed facility for healthcare workers, I remember having him on the phone and saying: ‘Thank you very much, that’s a good start.’ And it was followed by this long, awkward silence,” said Liu.

She added that she told Obama: “If the world’s biggest economy isn’t pledging high, then who will?”.

The UN’s financial tracking system shows that the scale of giving among G7 states varied greatly. Italy gave 0.3% of the total Ebola budget, while the US contributed about 45% . The UK gave roughly 10%.

But, frustratingly, the $1.7bn of US funding did not reap the rewards it could have, Liu noted.

“Unlike the Cubans, the US were not ready to expose their people. So even though they opened 11 centres with 150 beds each in Liberia, they treated just 28 people, because they deployed late, and refused to staff the centres.

“Nations don’t have friends, they have interests. The best motivation for a state to act if it is remote from an epidemic is if its own security is at risk.

“The downside is you keep waiting for a bigger and bigger monster to come, and by the time it hits you, it has already caused considerable damage elsewhere. As humanitarians, we can’t wait that long to act,” she said.

 

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Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/03/ebola-illegal-bushmeat-congo-brazzaville

As Ebola fears return, Congo-Brazzaville steps up fight against illegal bushmeat

After infected wildlife was linked with Guinea’s ‘patient zero’, the authorities desperately try to control the region’s trade. The Daily Maverick reports
A bushmeat hunter

A bushmeat hunter in the jungle on the way to hunt in Cameroon. In neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville, the fight against illegal wildlife harvesting is escalating. Photograph: Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images

Zanne Labuschagne for Daily Maverick, part of the Guardian Africa network

Friday 3 July 2015 02.00 EDT

At the entry points to Congo-Brazzaville’s second largest city and main port, three dogs, specially trained to detect wildlife products and weapons, are set to work.

Conditions are challenging for the canines and their handlers alike: high temperatures, uncooperative travellers, and vehicles loaded to the brim, often with strong-smelling mounds of manioc and smoked fish – which can disguise the odours of illicit cargo.

Despite this, the success rate is impressive. During the mission the dogs identified the location of an assortment of illegally hunted species, hidden beneath towering cargoes of people and luggage, headed for the bushmeat markets of Pointe-Noire.

Ebola risk unheeded as Guinea's villagers keep on eating fruit bats

This is the sniffer dog unit of a group who have been battling wildlife crime since 2008, and who are now hard at work to crack down on the illegal bush meat trade, believed to have been a major factor in the devastating spread of Ebola across west Africa in 2014, which killed more than 11,000 people.

Also known as wildmeat or game meat, the term refers to non-domesticated mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds hunted for food.

The link between the meat and Ebola was made after it emerged that the first victim’s family hunted bats. The two-year-old child – dubbed “patient zero”, from the village of Gueckedou in south-eastern Guinea – died on 6 December 2013, and his family later said they had hunted two species of bat which were found to carry the virus.

Though reports had indicated that Ebola fears were receding – the WHO declared the outbreak over in May – new cases of the virus found on Wednesday in Liberia have raised concerns once again.
Sniffer dogs are the frontline troops in the battle against bushmeat.
Sniffer dogs are the frontline troops in the battle against bushmeat. Photograph: Zanne Labuschagne

“With the help of the dogs, the team can now be in and out of a hot situation much more quickly, are more likely to find all the evidence needed for a case, and can ensure that wildlife-traffickers are caught red-handed – and don’t just stash their products before being caught,” says Arthur F Sniegon, a biologist from the Czech Republic, who has been coordinating the sniffer dog programme for the past year.

The trade in illegal bushmeat is big business. According to the Center for International Forestry Research, 5m tonnes of bushmeat are harvested from the Congo basin every year.
Wildlife impact

While for many Congolese bushmeat is a major source of protein, the environmental impact of the trade is devastating: the World Wildlife Fund points to the trade as the single biggest cause of wildlife loss in the region.

Diane Detoeuf of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently surveyed bushmeat hunters on the Bateke Plateau, in southwestern Gabon, and reported that “a high percentage of hunters interviewed find it increasingly difficult to find the species they once hunted in abundance” – an indicator of how badly the trade has affected forest wildlife densities.

Congo-Brazzaville’s wildlife laws are among the most stringent in central Africa, but many people – including the authorities – continue to see wildlife primarily as a source of food and income, rather than either a potential point of infection or a natural resource that needs to be protected.
A truck loaded with passengers stops outside a restaurant serving bush meat, in the town of Epulu, Congo in the heart of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.
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A truck loaded with passengers stops outside a restaurant serving bush meat, in the town of Epulu, Congo in the heart of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/APN

Convictions for wildlife crime can now lead to five years in jail, but this is still a low price to pay for those involved in such profitable activities. Furthermore, wildlife criminals seldom receive the maximum sentence, and the kingpins of the illegal wildlife trade are often not convicted at all.

This is exactly what the Project for the Application of Law for Fauna in the Republic of Congo (Palf) – and its sniffer dogs – is combatting. Working closely with other NGOs such as the WCS and the African Parks Network, they gain information on key players in the illicit trade, not only within Congo, but networks spreading into neighbouring countries too.

The addition of the three sniffer dogs to the team has hugely enhanced the efficacy of the project. Detecting illegal products in the chaos of a busy market is a challenge in itself, not to mention carrying out an operation and making arrests.

Congolese chimpanzees face new 'wave of killing' for bushmeat

The Palf dogs spend an average of 20 days a month in the field, rotating between the Maya-Maya international airport in Brazzaville and the country’s main transport routes.

To date, the dog team has assisted with six arrests, discovered more than a tonne of bushmeat and over 100 live crocodiles, tortoises, pangolins and African grey parrots – a tribute to the hard work of a dedicated team of environmental and anti-corruption activists.

A version of this article originally appeared on the Daily Maverick, part of the Guardian Africa network

 

[BREWER]

Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-d...seven-weeks-after-country-declared-free-virus

Two new Ebola cases in Liberia, seven weeks after country declared virus-free
Hours after Liberia reports its first Ebola death since 9 May, two more people test positive for the disease. An urgent contact tracing operation is under way

Health workers carry out tests in an area where a 17-year-old boy died from Ebola, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, on 30 June 2015.

Lisa O'Carroll
@lisaocarroll

Wednesday 1 July 2015 12.00 EDT
Last modified on Wednesday 1 July 2015 12.33 EDT

Two more people have tested positive for Ebola in Liberia, seven weeks after the country was declared free of the virus by the World Health Organisation.

They were tested after a 17-year-old male they lived with, who died on Sunday, was discovered to have had Ebola.

The town where he lived, 50km to the east of the capital Monrovia, has been quarantined, and the ministry of health is conducting an urgent contact tracing operation to see who the teenager was in touch with in the past 21 days.

The re-emergence of Ebola is of deep concern to Liberians and others trying to combat the disease in west Africa. In May, WHO announced Liberia had had no new cases of the disease in the previous 42 days – twice the incubation period of the virus.

The Ministry of Information tweeted news of the two new cases on Wednesday. The authorities were investigating whether the dead man had contracted the disease as a result of travel.

Numbers of victims have dramatically declined in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea but the disease is persistent in coastal border districts. However there have been no recent cases of Ebola in any of the regions bordering with Liberia.

“Although disheartening, the case of Ebola in Liberia is no cause for panic,” said Birte Hald, the team leader for Ebola coordination at the International Federation of Red Cross.

The IFRC announced it was expanding its operations in the three countries in a bid to stamp out the virus now that the case numbers have been reduced to between 20 and 27 a week, compared to hundreds a week at the disease’s peak.

“These countries will not be able to begin to fully recover until they get to zero cases and stay there,” said Hald.

The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (Unmeer) visited Guinea Bissau last week to inspect its preparedness in case Ebola crosses the border after cases were registered in the neighbouring prefecture of Boké in Guinea.

Scientists have said the first Ebola victim, a two-year-old boy from Guinea believed to have triggered the current outbreak, may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of bats.

In its latest situation report from June 24, WHO said the disease had infected 27,443, and killed 11,207.

 

[BREWER]

Posted for fair use and discussion. Aesop weighs in...
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/...-truman_2.html

Thursday, July 2, 2015
Dewey Defeats Truman

From the fishwrap of record:

MONROVIA, Liberia — More than a month after Liberia was declared free of Ebola, at least two new cases have emerged, the first discovered when the body of a 17-year-old boy tested positive for the virus, officials said Tuesday.

The World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9, a landmark moment in the country, which has suffered more deaths from the epidemic than any other.
But on Tuesday, Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s deputy minister for health, announced at a news conference here in the capital that a new case had emerged.
It occurred in a small town just outside Monrovia. The family of Abraham Memaigar, 17, who died over the weekend, called a burial team that took swabs of the body and sent them to a laboratory. It confirmed that the boy had been infected by the virus.
On Tuesday, an Ebola response team exhumed the body and had blood drawn for a more precise swab test. That test also came back positive.
Dr. Moses Massaquoi, the case manager for the response team, said the blood test was necessary because investigators could not find the source of the infection and were trying to determine whether it was an “isolated outbreak or new strain of the virus.”


Late Tuesday, a person connected to Abraham tested positive for Ebola, and tests of two other people were inconclusive, Dr. Massaquoi said.
Thirty-three people who had contact with the teenager were isolated in their homes and were being monitored, he said. Three people will be sent to a treatment unit here Wednesday, he said.
“The Ebola fight is not over, but we must not lose hope,” said Dr. Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s newly appointed minister of health. She contended that the quick response to Abraham’s case, including the rapid testing and confirmation that the boy had the virus, demonstrated Liberia’s preparedness to deal with another outbreak.
Liberia has recorded close to 5,000 lives lost to the virus.
The country reactivated an Ebola treatment unit at a time when the facilities, built with the help of the United States military, had stood empty and Liberia was beginning to close them.
Mr. Nyenswah said it was not yet known whether the infection came from Guinea or Sierra Leone, West African neighbors that still have small numbers of new Ebola cases.
Abraham, who sold used clothes at a local market, fell ill at his mother’s house a week before his death, experiencing fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
Abraham’s father, James S. Memaigar, 49, a shoe salesman, said a local clinic had told him just three days before his son’s death that Abraham had malaria. The clinic had sent him home with a handful of tablets, Mr. Memaigar said.
Abraham died Sunday in his father’s home in a community known as Smell No Taste, a few miles from his mother’s home and a short distance from Liberia’s international airport and the Firestone rubber plantation.
Mr. Memaigar had contacted the burial team and dragged his son’s body out of his room on a mattress. Abraham was buried the same day by an Ebola burial team in an overgrown cemetery a short distance from the house.
Dr. Dahn said investigators were trying to determine how the boy had become infected.


Points of note:
1) In a country ravaged by Ebola, and desperate to convince everyone they're free of it, with purportedly only one case to deal with, the crack Liberia medical care system missed the initial diagnosis. Until it had doubled. Perhaps multiple times. Stop me if you've heard this one...
2) The virus, certainly not a new strain, but the same one that's been rampant since December 2013 in West Africa, has done its main thing: it has already spread to at least one other person, and perhaps a dozen symptomatic ones and/or a hundred unsymptomatic soon-to-be diagnosed ones. A month or more later. Stop me if you've heard this one...
3) Liberia has proven competent to confirm two cases, now that they don't have people dying by the hundreds this year. Yet. But as far as stamping out the disease at such a low level, they are about as competent as the Iraqi Army against ISIS.
4) We have no idea how many other cases they've missed/mis-diagnosed since outside attention has waned.
5) With the uninterrupted media blackout of most all Ebola-related news, we never will, either there, nor here. It's frankly almost a miracle that the NYT even chose to publish this piece.

Don't worry, though.
Ebola will never ever get here from there, so there's no need for flight quarantines, and our superior health care system and dedicated medical practitioners would stop it in its tracks if it ever...oh, wait, nevermind.

Posted by Aesop at 7:25 AM
Labels: Ebola

4 comments:

geoffb said...

In one of the reports I saw that he had died in a village about 30 miles from the capital and looking at the name and the area it is said to be in it should be 30 miles ENE of the capital. This would put it far away from any border with Sierra Leone of Guinea though not exactly close to the capital or the airport either.

They are putting the blame on meat but the young boy was a seller of used clothes which, to me anyways, could have been another pathway to infection.
July 2, 2015 at 10:46 PM
Anonymous said...

Thank you for continuing to update us on ebola, as news of it has basically fallen out of the news and out of most forums, too. Your vigilance and comments are much appreciated.
July 3, 2015 at 8:04 PM
Anonymous said...

The 17 year-old boy was "chaste", they swear.

Under no circumstances would this teenager with disposable income desire to have sex.

(*All* media, so far, have been utterly worthless in detailing what connections, if any, the three new cases have to each other.)
July 5, 2015 at 3:17 AM
Doug said...

The statists, the state, I repeat myself, are the disease, and we must contend with this epidemic, the true pandemic upon our culture, society, and yes our very lives. It must be eradicated no less than Ebola itself.
Until we get our act together and become a plurality of people who will not be denied our rightful liberty, we might as well be injecting ourselves with the fresh blood of Ebola victims.
The disease which threatens the human race is the psychopaths who are running things. They infect every facet of our lives with their virulant pandemic of slavery to their hubris and lust for power.
The truth is hidden from us not because we will panic because a virus is so deadly, but because it is a component of crisis as a means to control us. Because if we knew the truth of how incompetent and what a collection of complete and utter fools those who have appointed themselves our betters really are, they can not foist an illusion of legitimacy they desperately require to put up a front of legitimate power over us to maintain that illegitimate power.
It is why threat of violence and use of force, coercion and punishment for refusing to comply with these idiots in charge is employed to begin with.
Just as sure as the sun rises, if Ebola was to come to America and spread, you can be sure euphemisms like "quarantine and national emergency" would be employed in a New York minute, not to protect us, but to use a crisis as a ,eans to deny us our liberty and self determination.
When you get down to it, we are for the better part of us very intelligent resourceful people. We would have little trouble dealing with Ebola or any pandemic rationally and with common sense perfectly well on our own by our own druthers. The state is so corrupt and by nature incompetent it is unable to deal with such things in a honest helpful manner. Like everything it touches, it infects with its tyranny.

Those running things exist now to survive their corruption, their illegitimacy, their complicity in their human extinction movement.
That is the human disease we must inoculate ourselves from before we can deal effectively with things like Ebola.
July 5, 2015 at 7:36 AM

 

[bev]

Posted for fair use and discussion.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-d...eres-head-criticises-g7-over-ebola-joanne-liu

...

But, frustratingly, the $1.7bn of US funding did not reap the rewards it could have, Liu noted.

“Unlike the Cubans, the US were not ready to expose their people. So even though they opened 11 centres with 150 beds each in Liberia, they treated just 28 people, because they deployed late, and refused to staff the centres.

...

This is disgraceful! Another reason for other countries to laugh at us.

 

[steve graham]

Thank you Brewer for keeping us informed.....you are so right....the MSM have so moved on....thank you again!

 

[BREWER]

This is disgraceful! Another reason for other countries to laugh at us.

Greetings, bev: US$1.7 billion isn't chump change either, so where did all that money go? To corrupt .gov officials on both sides of the Atlantic? We will never know.

Thank you Brewer for keeping us informed.....you are so right....the MSM have so moved on....thank you again!

Greetings, steve graham: You are most welcome. Needless to say, the subject if not taboo in most of the MSM is of virtually no interest in the US. Each month I really have to search to find even a few articles, and fortunately others have had some luck, too. The one article above that said that at one point 10,000 people in the US were being monitored must have slipped by us because I never heard/read anything approaching that number, anyone else see a figure that high? Probably not.

If there is a resurgence of Ebola in west Africa we will have to really keep our collective antenna up. I would be very happily relieved if this disease by some miracle has become benign, less communicable, less lethal, etc. I can't seem to buy into that;however, we here in the US have been extremely fortunate not to have had a regional outbreak at the least. Stay tuned. Take care. BREWER

 

[Faroe]

The US spent 1.7 billion to treat 28 people?
I don't think Ebola will ever go away - there is too much money in it.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150710/af--ebola-west_africa-76fd83763a.html

Tests show Ebola in Liberia linked to virus found months ago

Jul 10, 4:02 PM (ET)
By CARLEY PETESCH

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Samples taken from the 17-year-old boy who died from Ebola in Liberia nearly two weeks ago show the virus is genetically similar to viruses that infected many people in the same area more than six months ago, the World Health Organization said Friday.

That finding by genetic sequencing suggests it is unlikely the virus was caught from travel to infected areas of Guinea or Sierra Leone, the group said. "It also makes it unlikely that this has been caused by a new emergence from a natural reservoir, such as a bat or other animal," it said.

Five new cases of Ebola have been confirmed in the town of Nedowein, including the teen who died June 28. The four others with Ebola are among 149 identified contacts, WHO said.

Blood tests are being done on all of them to see if "there are people who had the virus in their bodies without knowing it," said Dr. Margaret Harris, a spokeswoman for WHO.

More than 4,800 Liberians died of Ebola before the country was declared free of transmissions in May.

"There are a considerable number of survivors. And we also know that it persists in certain bodily fluids, and that it can subsist for at least six months," Dr. Harris said, adding the transmission could have been sexual.

The virus spreads through direct contact with an Ebola patient's blood or other body fluids like urine, saliva, semen and sweat. Once patients recover, health officials say they aren't contagious, except it could still be in semen.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 11,200 people, mostly in West Africa. The presidents of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone are asking for $3.2 billion to help their countries recover.

---

This story was corrected to show that the teen died nearly two weeks ago.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

I didn't see an August ebola thread.

There is a "suspect" case being treated in Bama. The person is considered "low risk" although, they have been to an area with ebola. (per WHNT just now)