Africa

IAEA to provide nuclear detection technology to help diagnose Ebola in West Africa

Fri, 2014-10-17 17:01 — mike kraft

HOMELAND SECURITY TODAY Oct. 17, 2014

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would provide specialized diagnostic equipment to help Sierra Leone in its efforts to combat the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak. Later, the support is planned to be extended to Liberia and Guinea. The support is in line with a UN Security Council appeal and responds to a request from Sierra Leone. The IAEA assistance will supplement the country’s ability to diagnose EVD quickly using a diagnostic technology known as Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). RT-PCR is a nuclear-derived technology which allows EVD to be detected within a few hours, while other methods require growing on a cell culture for several days before a diagnosis is determined.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it would provide specialized diagnostic equipment to help Sierra Leone in its efforts to combat the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, IAEA director General Yukiya Amano announced Tuesday. Later, the support is planned to be extended to Liberia and Guinea.

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Ebola: WHO lists 15 priority countries

Fri, 2014-10-17 16:49 — mike kraft

WHO says it is focusing on 15 African countries to stop spread of disease, as EU reviews its screening policies.

AL JAZEERA Oct. 17, 2014

The World Health Organizaton (WHO) has said it is focusing its attention on 15 countries to prevent the spread of Ebola, as the EU announced a review of its entry policies and the disease was reported in the last untouched area of Sierra Leone.

Dr Isabelle Nuttall, the WHO's global director, said on Thursday that cases were doubling every four weeks and that health officials were trying to prevent the disease spreading from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the worst-hit nations, to neighbouring countries and those with a strong travel and trade relationship.

Focus countries

Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, DR Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Sudan and Togo.

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Ebola outbreak: WHO admits it botched early attempt to stop disease

Fri, 2014-10-17 13:49 — mike kraft

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 17, 2014

The World Health Organization has admitted that it botched attempts to stop the now-spiraling Ebola outbreak in West Africa, blaming factors including incompetent staff and a lack of information.

"Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall," WHO said in a draft internal document obtained by The Associated Press, noting that experts should have realized that traditional containment methods wouldn't work in a region with porous borders and broken health systems.

"It's the regional office in Africa that's the frontline," said Dr. Peter Piot, co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. "And they didn't do anything. That office is really not competent." (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

The UN health agency acknowledged that, at times, even its own bureaucracy was a problem. It noted that the heads of WHO country offices in Africa are "politically motivated appointments" made by the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, who does not answer to the agency's chief in Geneva, Dr. Margaret Chan.

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Obama Authorizes National Guard To Help Fight Ebola

Fri, 2014-10-17 13:27 — mike kraft

BUSINESS INSIDER Oct. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama authorized the use of American military reservists on Thursday to support humanitarian aid efforts against the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In a letter to leaders of the US Congress, Obama said an unspecified number of reservists will be used to help activate duty personnel in support of the Ebola mission in West Africa.

It could include personnel such as engineers, logistics staff, and communications specialists. No individuals or units has been identified yet for the call-up.

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All four suspected Ebola cases in Spain test negative for the disease

Fri, 2014-10-17 11:38 — mike kraft

THE GUARDIAN OCT. 17, 2014
By Ashifa Kassam

MADRID-- All four suspected Ebola cases admitted to hospitals in Spain on Thursday have tested negative for the virus in the initial rounds of tests, authorities said on Friday.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/17/two-suspected-ebola-cases-spain-test-negative-disease

A passenger on an Air France flight arriving at Madrid with fever symptoms was taken to Carlos III hospital.

The patient later tested negative. Photograph: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

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Ron Klain, Chief of Staff to 2 Vice Presidents, Is Named Ebola ‘Czar’

Fri, 2014-10-17 11:09 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISOCT. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday appointed Ron Klain, a former chief of staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as Ebola “czar” to manage the government’s response to the deadly virus as anxiety grew over its possible spread, according to a White House official.

Ron Klain, a former chief of staff for Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joseph R. Biden Jr., in 2008. Credit Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images

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Obama May Name ‘Czar’ to Oversee Ebola Response

Fri, 2014-10-17 10:53 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES WRAPUP OF THE MANY DEVELOPMENTS for Oct. 26, 3024

By JACK HEALY, SABRINA TAVERNISE and ABBY GOODNOUGH

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Ebola Relief: Emergency Medical Supplies Bound for Guinea

Thu, 2014-10-16 23:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

directrelief.org - by Tony Morain - October 16, 2014

Direct Relief sent its 19th emergency shipment of Ebola supplies today to the Ministry of Health in Guinea (photos and videos found here). Weighing roughly 3,000 pounds, the shipment contains laboratory testing equipment from BD (blood collection sets), face masks, and medical gloves. In total, Direct Relief has delivered 140 tons of medical aid to Ebola-hit regions since the outbreak erupted in spring. 47 companies have contributed to these efforts through in-kind or financial contributions.

More broadly, Direct Relief is continuing to receive urgent requests from local health facilities in West Africa for essential medicines to treat non-Ebola (and treatable) illnesses that may be causing more deaths than Ebola itself.

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Nurse Nina Pham To Be Transferred To NIH For Ebola Treatment

Thu, 2014-10-16 14:56 — mike kraft

NPR Oct. 16, 2014

WASHINGTON --A top government health official confirms that Nina Pham, the 26-year-old nurse who became infected with Ebola after treating a patient with the disease at a Dallas hospital, will be transferred to a high-level containment facility at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said in testimony before a House committee that Pham will be admitted to the NIH tonight.

There she will will be given "state of the art care" in a high-level containment facility, he says.

Officials have said Pham's condition is good. Another nurse, Amber Vinson, who also cared for index patient Thomas Eric Duncan has also contracted the disease. Duncan died from the disease last week.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/10/16/356594638/house-panel-hearing-to-examine-public-health-response-to-ebola-outbreak

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Ebola in DRC is from different source than WAfrica virus

Thu, 2014-10-16 12:33 — mike kraft

AFP Oct. 16, 2014

WASHINGTON - An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year came from a different source than the epidemic raging across West Africa, scientists said Wednesday.

Even though the two deadly Ebola outbreaks have separate animal origins, the report in the New England Journal of Medicine nevertheless raises concern about the emergence of the often fatal hemorrhagic fever across the African continent.

A Congolese barber cuts hair in Lokolia, on October 6, 2014, despite the authorities' order to avoid physical contact to stop the spread of Ebola (AFP Photo/Kathy Katayi)

Ebola was first identified in 1976, and had returned in waves. The latest outbreak in West Africa is history's largest, killing more than 4,400 people since the beginning of the year.

A separate, smaller outbreak in the DRC began over the summer, and has killed 49 people of the 69 believed infected between late July and October 7, the NEJM report said.

An analysis of the virus's genome showed that it is a type called Ebola Zaire, and is 99.2 percent related to a 1995 variant that emerged in Kikwit in the DRC.

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