Ebola doctor flew through JFK
Bucks is reported to have flown in Thursday night on a Royal Moroccan Airlines flight after treating patients in west Africa. He stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Jamaica, Queens, near the airport, where CDC workers also stay, after missing a connecting flight. On Friday, he was cleared to travel home to northern California, where he will be monitored by the CDC. Source:
He is asymptomatic and he’s being allowed to leave the hotel and fly home
Flight grounded in Columbia
0 CommentsUnited Flight 5732 from Dulles is grounded on the ramp at Columbia Metropolitan after a passenger reports a nosebleed. The chances that the passenger has the virus are ‘very, very low’. Spokeswoman:
Emergency crews are meeting the plane. We are taking precautionary measures.
Full assessment of passenger in question indicated he did not demonstrate symptoms
— CAEAirport (@iFlyCAE) October 24, 2014
‘Fortunate and blessed’
Pham makes a statement after her release, thanking her doctors, family and friends. Pham also asks for privacy so she can could get back to normal life and reunite with Bentley.
I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today. I would first and foremost like to thank God, my family, and friends.
Ebola free
The National Institutes of Health says in a statement that Nina Pham is being released Friday from its hospital near Washington. Pham will make a brief statement during a news conference late this morning.
Ebola response team in NY
The CDC says its Ebola response team is arriving in the city to offer support. It adds that Spencer cleared enhanced screening on Oct. 17 at JFK. He wasn’t showing symptoms at the time.
3 members of CDC’s Ebola Response Team will arrive in New York City tonight; CDC Ebola experts already in NYC to offer immediate support.
— CDC (@CDCgov) October 24, 2014
Liberians avoid treatment due to cremation rule
AP reports that a Liberian analysis of bed space at Ebola treatment units concludes that of 742 spaces, 351 were occupied and 391 were vacant. It cites Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah, who heads the government’s Ebola response. The main problem is the traditional practice of honoring the dead with burial ceremonies. Nyenswah:
For fear of cremation, do not stay home to die… We know cremation is not our culture in our country. But now we have disease, so we have to change the way we used to do business.
Lack of human resources
0 CommentsAid groups in west Africa say they have enough money to fight the virus but need more people. The WHO estimates that 1,000 foreign medical workers and 20,000 locals are needed to man the 50 Ebola treatment units due to be rolled out across the three worst effected nations, but so far there are firm commitments from foreign teams for only 30 of the units. Manuel Fontaine, head of UNICEF in west Africa:
The big gap is still in human resources. Money is necessary. It is an expensive operation. But we need people.
Mali confirms first case
A two-year-old girl brought into Mali from Guinea is taken to the hospital in Kayes after showing symptoms, and tests positive. Her father had died of the virus. Health Ministry spokeswoman:
The girl is still in the hospital in Kayes together with members of her family who might have been exposed to the virus
Family speaks out
Spencer’s family defends him against the critics who are upset that he did not quarantine himself upon his return to the United States. Arnie Spencer, Spencer’s uncle to Mail Online:
‘As far as I’m concerned he did nothing wrong. I’m angry that he is getting trashed. I don’t like what’s being said at all. ‘He’s a hero to me,’ said his uncle. He’s a fantastic humanitarian and that is how people should think of him. He wanted to be a doctor without borders from when he was a kid. It’s all he wanted to do.
Angry tweets
Twitter users post angry tweets after learning Spencer travelled around New York City for three days while at risk for Ebola. Many tweets revolve around his visit to the Williamsbug bowling alley, The Gutter.
ABSOLUTELY NO SYMPATHY for a doctor who knows he's been in contact w/Ebola, goes bowling, takes 2 subways, has contact with girl, Uber. none
— 🏴☠️ERIC BOLLING 🏴☠️ (@ericbolling) October 24, 2014
https://twitter.com/thebenshow/status/525480920300539906
Not told to self-quarantine
Spencer follows guidelines set by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders that say he does not need to self-quarantine upon returning from Guinea. MSF guidelines ask that those returning from Ebola infected areas self-monitor their health for 21 days. MSF statement:
‘Our colleague in New York followed the MSF protocols and guidelines since returning from West Africa.
Donates 100 million to fight Ebola
Seattle Seahawks owner Allen donates 100 million to the effort to fight Ebola. Allen sets up a website, TackleEbola.com, where people can make donations.
Everybody feels called sometimes to really pursue a certain thing that resonates with them, and this has resonated with me. The exponential nature of the growth of this disease is really a challenge — we’ve already seen in the U.S. where one case quickly became two.
Fiancee, 2 friends quarantined
Spencer’s live in fiancée, Morgan Dixon, is quarantined at Bellevue Hospital. Two of Spencer’s friends voluntarily quarantine themselves in their homes. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo:
We are as ready as one can be for this circumstance.
Tracing steps in New York City
Health and New York City officials are tracing the steps of Spencer, who travelled the city for three days before being diagnosed with the Ebola virus. They determine Spencer rode the subway, rode in a taxi and visited ‘The Gutter’, a Williamsburg bowling alley. The Gutter, shuttered after hearing the news, issues the statement:
We’ve been in constant contact with the Health Department and they have determined that there was no risk to our customers.
Mayor Bill de Blasio:
Being on the same subway car or living near someone with Ebola does not in itself put someone at risk.
Donates $100 million
Microsoft co-founder Allen quadruples an earlier donation pledge of $26 million to non-profits and government organizations including the CDC. Allen:
Everybody feels called sometimes to really pursue a certain thing that resonates with them, and this has resonated with me
Vaccine shelved for 10 years
0 CommentsCanadian and U.S. scientists developed a vaccine almost 10 years that was 100% effective in protecting monkeys against the virus, publishing their results in Nature and saying a product could be ready for licensing by 2010 or 2011, but the vaccine was shelved due to the lack of market opportunities. It is now undergoing basic safety tests in humans after falling into what an expert calls a ‘biotech valley of death’, where no drug company would help bring it to production. One of the vaccine developers:
There’s never been a big market for Ebola vaccines. So big pharma, who are they going to sell it to? It takes a crisis sometimes to get people talking. ‘O.K. We’ve got to do something here.’
Study warning of Ebola ‘explosion’ questioned
A study in Lancet Infectious Diseases warns of 171,000 cases of the virus in Montserrado county by Dec. 15, 12% of the country’s population, with over 90,000 fatalities. The study depends on the assumptions that every person with Ebola will infect 2.49 other people, and that health measures in Montserrado will remain unchanged. It says that if 4,800 beds are installed at treatment centres in November and health workers speed up fivefold the detection rate of Ebola cases, 77,312 cases could be averted. Health experts say the situation on the ground is changing. Doctor:
It’s too early to say whether the ongoing and intense control efforts in Monrovia have yet achieved control or merely slowed the epidemic, but what is being seen on the ground is clearly incompatible with the results in this paper.
Tests postive
Spencer tests positive for the virus at Bellevue Hospital. Spencer recently returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa. He is the fourth confirmed case in the U.S. and the first in the city. He is being treated in a special isolation ward. City officials say the doctor’s symptoms developed Wednesday, prompting him to isolate himself in his apartment.
The CDC has dispatched an Ebola response team to New York, and the city’s disease detectives have been tracing the doctor’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at risk. His Harlem apartment has been cordoned off, and his fiance, who is not showing symptoms, is being watched in a quarantine ward at Bellevue.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said proper protocols were followed every step of the way and it didn’t appear the doctor had been showing symptoms for very long.
The patient is in good shape and has gone into a great deal of detail with our personnel as to his actions the last few days so we have a lot to work with. We have a patient who has been very communicative and precise and who has only been back a very short time and has been quite clear about individuals he had close contact with.
West Point takes anti-Ebola measures
The slum, which is Liberia’s biggest and is home to 50,000 people, introduces measures like avoiding contact with the sick and hand-washing using a bleach solution, and avoiding eating ‘bush meat,’ meat from monkeys and rodents. Aid worker Mechie Seih tells charcoal seller Mamie Kollie how to lower infection risk if a family member falls ill:
You put clean plastic bags on your hands. You wear a thick jacket with long trousers. You put shoes and socks on your feet.
Pharmacist Doris Nyenkan says she now tells customers complaining of fever to get tested for Ebola. She also sells hand sanitizer, and uses it herself:
People clean their homes every day now. Now they are washing their hands, buying this gel. Before Ebola you didn’t see people doing such things.
Schools take first-of-kind measures
0 CommentsSchools in states states such as Louisiana, Maryland and Georgia are taking precautions that include rules allowing superintendents to close schools, Ebola risk assessments for all children registering for school, and measures to ensure quarantined students are provided homework and instruction. In one instance, DeKalb County School District in Georgia notified principals and administrators that no new students from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea—as well as affected areas in the U.S.—would be enrolled or allowed to attend classes without medical documentation and approval. University of California public health professor:
I can understand wanting to be prepared. But most of these school districts will never encounter a student with contact with the three countries. It’s a legitimate concern but an overreaction.