First Ebola case in Scotland
Scotland confirms its first case of Ebola as a health care worker returning from Sierra Leone. Scottish health agency NHS Scotland statement:
The patient was admitted to hospital early in the morning after feeling unwell and was placed into isolation at 7.50 a.m. All possible contacts with the patient are now being investigated and anyone deemed to be at risk will be contacted and closely monitored. However, having been diagnosed in the very early stages of the illness, the risk to others is considered extremely low.
Emergency approval for testing kit
0 CommentsThe FDA gives emergency approval to a new diagnostic test kit to test blood. It is the seventh in a series of emergency authorizations based on a 2006 authorization and intended to take a more proactive stance towards the virus.
CDC reports potential exposure
0 CommentsThe CDC reports that as many as a dozen scientists may have been exposed in a lab in Atlanta. They mistakenly transfered a sample from a high-security lab to another lab in the building. CDC director Frieden:
We are monitoring the health of one technician who could possibly have been exposed and I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures. Thousands of laboratory scientists in more than 150 labs throughout CDC have taken extraordinary steps in recent months to improve safety. No risk to staff is acceptable, and our efforts to improve lab safety are essential — the safety of our employees is our highest priority
Child tests negative
0 CommentsThe child admitted to the University of Chicago Medical Center after being flagged for a high fever during an O’Hare screening tests negative for the virus and has been discharged, per a statement released by the hospital.
Tests by the Illinois Department of Public Health confirmed a negative result for Ebola.
Child quarantined in Chicago
0 CommentsA child is quarantined at the University of Chicago Medical Center after arriving at O’Hare International Airport with Ebola-like symptoms. Statement:
The patient has been isolated under strict quarantine protocols until the child’s condition improves and a diagnosis is established. The patient has been assigned a dedicated and highly trained team composed of nurses, physicians and other health care professionals.
11th Sierra Leone doctor dies
Dr. Victor Willoughby, 67, who tested positive for Ebola on Saturday, dies from the virus hours after an experimental drug arrived in the country for him. Dr. Brima Kargbo, the country’s chief medical officer:
Dr. Victor Willoughby was a mentor to us physicians and a big loss to the medical profession. He has always been available to help junior colleagues.
Fire destroys medicine
0 CommentsFire destroys a warehouse at the Conakry airport in Guinea, burning everything inside, including a cache of medicine to treat the Ebola virus. Dr. Moussa Konate, head of logistics for Guinea’s Ebola response, could not immediately say how much had been lost.
Cancels Christmas
Sierra Leone bans holiday celebrations amidst its continued fight against Ebola. Palo Conteh, head of the government’s Ebola response unit:
[There will be] no Christmas and New Year celebrations this year. We will ensure that everybody remains at home to reflect on Ebola. Military personnel will be on the streets at Christmas and the New Year to stop any street celebrations.
Ebola fighters named 2014 Person of The Year
Time names the Ebola fighters as the 2014 Person of the Year. Time Editor Nancy Gibbs explains the choice:
Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and “us” means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day. The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are TIME’s 2014 Person of the Year.
Outbreak surpasses 16,000
1 CommentsAccording to the World Health Organization, the current outbreak surpasses 16,000 cases with nearly 7,000 deaths from these cases. The United Nations’ health agency issues its latest numbers, focusing on how Ebola has affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — the three countries where the vast majority of cases have occurred.
The WHO and other health agencies say the scale of the Ebola outbreak is likely significantly worse than even the current high numbers indicate, because many people died before they could be diagnosed and many contracted the disease in remote areas without ready access to health care.
Opens Ebola fashion pop-up
Campbell launches “Fashion for Relief”, a fashion pop-up shop, to raise awareness for Ebola. The shop is set to be open for one week at the Westfield shopping centre in east London.
Raising awareness for Ebola and educating about its prevention is crucial to help prevent the spread of this deadly disease. We hope the Fashion For Relief store will raise much-needed funds and awareness, whilst offering amazing pieces at accessible prices.
Vaccine results positive in first human trial
0 CommentsU.S. scientists say that the first human trial of an Ebola vaccine being developed by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline produced ‘positive’ results. The twenty healthy adults who are tested develop anti-Ebola antibodies and produce an immune response with no serious side effects. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases:
Based on these positive results from the first human trial of this candidate vaccine, we are continuing our accelerated plan for larger trials to determine if the vaccine is efficacious in preventing Ebola infection.
DRC is Ebola-free
0 CommentsThe World Health Organisation has confirmed that the Democratic Republic of Congo is Ebola-free, as 42 days have passed since the last case in an outbreak that killed at least 49 people. The DRC outbreak, which began in August, involved a different strain of Ebola from the one that has claimed more than 5400 lives in west Africa.
UN health agency:
The Democratic Republic of Congo is now considered free of Ebola transmission.
Temporary protected status for west Africans
0 CommentsPeople from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea will be able to apply for protection from deportation from the U.S., as well as for work permits, for a period of 18 months after which Homeland Security will reassess the situation in west Africa. Temporary protected status is used when people’s country of origin is too dangerous to return to, such as after the Haiti earthquake in 2010.
Gets new ring
Vinson describes how her engagement ring was destroyed in the Ebola decontamination process:
I took off all my jewelry, thinking that my jewelry would be safer at home than in the hospital. And when the decontamination team came in, everything that was on the surface was swiped into a bin for incineration. My jewelry box being on my nightstand was one of those things that got destroyed.
After hearing the story, Chris Nieto of Zales jewelers invites Vinson and her fiancé to pick out a new ring for free.
When we heard that Amber Vinson’s ring was lost by the clean-up crew, our hearts went out to her. It was really important that we went ahead and wanted to step up to get her something that helps celebrate her life and express love.
Vinson:
When I found out that Zales had offered to give a ring, I was taken aback by the generosity because I’ve had so much negativity towards me. For someone to reach out to me with such a positive thing, it put a big smile on my face. … It made my day.
Vinson still suffers fatigue from the effects of the disease.
Survivor quarantined over semen
0 CommentsAn Ebola survivor travelling from Liberia to India is quarantined after traces of the virus are found in his semen. India Health Ministry statement:
Currently, this person is not having any symptoms of the disease. However, he would be kept under isolation in the special health facility of (the) Delhi Airport Health Organization, till such time his body fluids test negative and he is found medically fit to be discharged.
Stop calling me ‘the Ebola nurse’
In an op-ed in The Guardian, Hickox says:
I never had Ebola. I never had symptoms of Ebola. I tested negative for Ebola the first night I stayed in New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s private prison in Newark. I am now past the incubation period – meaning that I will not develop symptoms of Ebola. I never had Ebola, so please stop calling me “the Ebola Nurse” – now!
Like many aid workers, I went to West Africa to respond to the Ebola outbreak because it was the most essential struggle about which I knew I could do something. I spent four of the most difficult weeks of my life fighting against a disease that destroys people of all ages and physical strengths. I witnessed men, women and children – who days earlier were strong and full of life – struggle to hold a glass of water to their lips. I worked in an Ebola case management center where our beds were constantly filled and so many others suffering from Ebola in West Africa needed help, but the capacity was lacking; we need many more people to go and help.
Like me, most workers who return from helping to care for Ebola patients will thankfully never develop symptoms of Ebola, and US policy needs to reflect that truth rather than stoke fears that someone could get sick.
Nobody should’ve had to watch me ride my bicycle out in the open as politicians fed the public false fears and misinformation. I want to live in an America that reaches out to aid workers as they return from West Africa and says, “We loved and stood by you when you were fighting this disease. We will love and stand by you now.”
We can define compassion, instead of being ruled by fear and fear-mongers.
Single sales ‘extraorinary’
Geldof calls sales of Band Aid’s new version of Do They Know It’s Christmas?, released to raise money for Ebola, ‘extraordinary’ in an interview on Radio 4’s Today program.
From what we’ve seen from iTunes it’s gone bonkers. Within four or five minutes we had a million quid.
Martin Salia dies from Ebola
Salia dies at Nebraska Medical Center while being treated for Ebola. Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the hospital’s biocontainment unit:
It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news. Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him.
Band Aid song to benefit Ebola
A new version of Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, featuring Bono, One Direction and Sam Smith, debuts on The X Factor. The proceeds from the song, which is available on iTunes, are being donated to help the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Bob Geldof, who wrote the original version:
[Ebola] is the most anti-human disease, but we can stop it, and we will stop it.