Arrives in the United States
Salia arrives in the United States to begin treatment for Ebola at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center:
This is an hour-by-hour situation. He is extremely ill. We have multiple highly-trained specialists who are experts in their fields targeting his most serious medical issues.
Clinical drug trials to start next month
0 CommentsClinical trials of experimental Ebola treatment will start next month in West Africa as the regional death toll from the deadly virus surpasses 5,000.
One trial will treat infected patients with the antiviral drug brincidofovir at a medical center in the Liberian capital of Monrovia. In a second trial, patients will get the antiviral drug Favipiravir in the southern town of Gueckedou in Guinea. A third trial in the Guinean capital of Conakry will focus on giving patients blood transfusions from Ebola survivors, a method recommended by the World Health Organization.
Doctors Without Borders:
This is an unprecedented international partnership which represents hope for patients to finally get a real treatment against a disease that today kills between 50 and 80% of those infected.
Returns to US for treatment
Salia, a critically ill surgeon diagnosed with Ebola while working in his native Sierra Leone, is returning to the United States to be treated at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center:
Our staff has had a break since treating our last patient, so I know we’re ready to go.
Family and hospital reach settlement
Duncan’s family and Texas Health Resources reach a confidential settlement. As a part of the settlement, a memorial fund is set up in Duncan’s name to raise money to help victims of Ebola in South Africa. Texas Health Presbyterian statement:
We know that this has been a terribly sad, difficult and trying time for Mr. Duncan’s family and friends, and they will continue to be in the hearts and prayers of the entire Texas Health Presbyterian family.
Released
NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation announce Spencer is free of the virus. This means there are not current cases of Ebola in the United States.
Dr. Spencer poses no public health risk and will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11th.
No regrets, would treat Ebola patients
Vinson tells the Today Show that she has no regrets about treating Thomas Eric Duncan and would treat other Ebola patients.
Nursing is what I do. I could never see a patient that needs help and not do everything I can to help them.
Discussing coming under fire for having flown to and from Ohio on a commercial plane.
It made me feel terrible because that’s not me. I am not careless. I am not reckless…I was never told that I couldn’t travel. I talked to my (Intensive Care Unit) management team. I talked to management in person and they said the CDC said it was OK for me to go…I’m an ICU nurse; I embrace protocol and guidelines and structure, because in my day-to-day nursing, it is a matter of life and death.
Vinson says she was “floored” when she heard that Nina Pham had become ill.
I was afraid for myself and my family. I did everything I was instructed to do. I felt if Nina can get it, any one of us can get it.
About her training:
We did not have excessive training where we could put on and take off the protective equipment, where we could get to a level of being comfortable with it. I didn’t have that.
Search for blood-prick test
0 CommentsResearchers are looking for a faster way to test for the virus, especially for field use in west Africa. Chief executive of Genalyte, a San Diego-based company that makes pinprick tests:
There’s a great deal of interest in a technology that can screen large numbers of people from a finger prick in only a few minutes.
CEO at BioFire Defense, based in Salt Lake City, which has got clearance from the WHO for a one-hour test that is sent to a laboratory:
It would have taken years to get this product approved through the traditional process
Thousands break quarantine
Aid groups say thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to break quarantine to find food as food prices in quarantined areas have risen beyond affordability. Disasters Emergency Committee:
The quarantine of Kenema, the third largest town in Sierra Leone, is having a devastating impact on trade — travel is restricted so trucks carrying food cannot freely drive around. Food is becoming scarce, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The World Food Program fed more than 450,000 people in Sierra Leone in October, including people who are under quarantine or being treated for Ebola, but distribution of food has been difficult since it has required bringing food to remote areas by poor roads.
Imprisons journalist
Tam-Baryoh is jailed in Freetown’s Pademba Road prison under emergency powers in an executive order from the president. Jail superintendant:
The powers were derived from the Ebola emergency regulations the country is currently under
The charges against him and the length of his detention aren’t specified. The arrest may be linked to comments Tam-Baryoh made on his radio show MONOLGUE, in which he appeared to challenge arrests made last week in the Kono district after Ebola-linked riots. The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists condemns the arrest.
Hampers treatment of other illnesses
0 CommentsThe Ebola outbreak is blocking treatment of malaria, pneumonia, typhoid, and other illnesses in west Africa as people either cannot find an open clinic, or are too afraid to go to one. The WHO refers to the hidden cases of illness:
emergency within the emergency
Official at the Emergency charity:
There’s this incredible silent killer health crisis behind the Ebola crisis
London patient negative
0 CommentsA woman with a haemorrhagic fever at St. George’s hospital in Tooting has tested negative for the virus. She had travel connections with west Africa and was isolated away from the A&E while samples were tested at the Government laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Spokesman:
The outcome of the Ebola test result is negative. We can confirm that the patient will remain at St George’s Hospital. All appropriate actions have been taken by our staff to protect the public and the patient
Exponential phase may be over
0 CommentsWHO officials tell BBC Health that they are relatively optimistic new cases may level off to around 1,000 a week, indicating the exponential growth phase may be over. WHO official:
Things clearly have changed with respect to the trajectory of the epidemic. What we’ve seen is, very clearly, a slowing down in the some of the affected areas in the three countries.
UN worker treated in France
0 CommentsFrance is treating a UN employee who contracted the virus in Sierra Leone. Health ministry statement:
This person, who worked in Sierra Leone in the fight against Ebola, has undergone a secure medical evacuation by specialised aircraft
The person is in isolation under high security in an army training hospital in Saint-Mande near Paris.
Indonesian worker hospitalized
0 CommentsA domestic worker in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-biggest country by population, is hospitalized after returning from Liberia. The unidentified worker is placed under a 21-day quarantine at the Madiun hospital in East Java province, on the archipelago country’s main Java island. The worker’s name isn’t released yet. Around 6.5 million Indonesians work in domestic service in other countries, mostly in Asia. This is the first suspected case in the country, which has strong economic growth but a relatively underdeveloped medical system.
Indonesian patient improves
0 CommentsThe 46-year-old domestic worker, identified as GN, is still in isolation but is improving. He is one of 28 domestic workers who returned from Liberia Oct. 26. A blood sample has been sent to the health ministry for testing. Health ministry:
On Saturday morning, the patient’s body temperature was 37.3 degrees Celsius and he reported to be no longer suffering swallowing pain. His condition is improving
Canada suspends visas
Canada becomes the second developed nation after Australia to close off immigration channels to people from the three Ebola-affected west African countries. Work on permanent-resident applications is also suspended. An immigration ministry spokesman says the measures are different from Australia’s.
We have instituted a pause, but there is room for discretion if we can be assured that someone is not infected with Ebola.
Africa tourism falls
0 CommentsTourism operators in Africa’s east, north, and south are reporting big drops in business due to the virus. Hotels in Tanzania have reported a 30% drop in business and 2015 bookings are down 50%, while a South African tourism industry council says 55% of tourism-dependent businesses have suffered a negative impact. Cook Travel in north Africa says tourists have canceled trips to Egypt and Morocco, and Morocco has asked to put off the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament it is scheduled to host in early 2015. A World Bank report says sub-Saharan Africa had a record 33.8 million tourists in 2012. The World Tourism Organization says Africa tourism rose 6% last year and was expected to increase 4%-6% this year, but that’s now unlikely to happen. One extended family from Long Island paid a $20,500 fee to reschedule a $197,000 safari holiday from July 2015 until 2016. Employee at Cook Travel in New York:
People are being a little bit unreasonable—they’re treating Ebola like the modern version of the plague
Condition upgraded
Officials say Spencer’s condition has been upgraded from “serious but stable” to “stable”. Authorities have said Spencer was awake, communicating and undergoing plasma and antiviral therapies, treatments that have been used to treat Ebola patients at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Report: Worst case scenario 130 U.S. infections
0 CommentsMedical researchers provide Associated Press with a range of predictions for the eventual number of U.S. cases, ranging from one or two additional infections by end-2014, to as many as 130 cases. Stanford University infections disease professor:
I don’t think there’s going to be a huge outbreak here, no. However, as best we can tell right now, it is quite possible that every major city will see at least a handful of cases.
Roommate in Africa had virus
A document released by the state of Maine indicates Hickox’s roommate had Ebola:
The respondent’s roommate in Africa became infected without knowing how she became infected with Ebola. (Any potential risk to respondent from that incident has passed)