On the Footsteps of a Pandemic: Nigeria and Liberia Declare National Emergencies, CDC Issues Highest Emergency Alert

The Nigerian government on Wednesday described the Ebola outbreak in the country as a national emergency. Minister of Health Onyebuchi Chukwu said this at an emergency meeting convened by the House of Representatives Committee on Health over the Ebola outbreak in Abuja, the nation’s capital city. He said out of six Nigerians diagnosed with Ebola virus, one had died on Tuesday, adding that the other five patients were receiving treatment. The minister said everyone in the world now was at risk, adding that the experience of Nigeria had opened the eyes of the world to the reality of Ebola. He said there was no empirical evidence to show that bitter kola will prevent or cure the highly infectious disease. The outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has infected 1,711 people and killed 932 this year in four western African countries — Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — according to the World Health Organization. –Xinhua

CDC issues highest alert level: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ramped up its response to the expanding Ebola outbreak, a move that frees up hundreds of employees and signals the agency sees the health emergency as a potentially long and serious one. The CDC’s “level 1 activation” is reserved for the most serious public health emergencies, and the agency said the move was appropriate considering the outbreak’s “potential to affect many lives.” The CDC took a similar move in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2009 during the bird-flu threat…

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Several Britons quarantined for Ebola amidst claims the virus may be airborne

Several British nationals have been voluntarily quarantined with suspected Ebola, according to the Daily Telegraph. The admission came from public health officials and follows revelations an individual in Cardiff had expressed fears they had contracted the disease. The exact number of people quarantined and their exact location have not been confirmed, but they are believed to be spread across the UK. The problem faced by public health authorities is that tests for Ebola are ineffective until the patients show symptoms. This means that they have to wait up to 21 days, which is the maximum incubation period. The World Health Organization has also claimed that the virus is spreading faster than they can control. This may be because of a misunderstanding about how the virus is transmitted; in 2012 a study suggested that Ebola may be transmitted through the air. Whilst the study was not conclusive the BBC reported that Canadian scientists had found that Ebola had been transmitted between animals that had never come into direct contact. This suggests that the current theory that it is only transmitted by exchange of bodily fluids may be wrong. However it is known that the individual in Cardiff has been confined to their home for the past week, after they returned from West Africa. The person visited West Africa where more than 1,600 people have been infected with the virus in recent months, resulting in 887 deaths. Public Health Wales said the person is “currently staying away from work and limiting contact with other people voluntarily.” A health official admitted there were “several cases” across the UK, but stressed the quarantines were purely a precaution as none of them had developed any symptoms of Ebola.

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