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U.S. Troops in Africa May Come in Contact with Ebola Patients

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By AFP.

US troops deployed to West Africa to fight the Ebola outbreak could stay up to a year, depending on how quickly the virus can be contained, a top general said Tuesday.

The head of the US military’s Africa Command, General David Rodriguez, also rejected criticism that the American response to the crisis has been too slow, saying the troop deployment had to be designed to take into account Liberia’s limited infrastructure.

About 350 US troops have arrived in Liberia and Senegal so far as part of a 3,200-strong force due to help with logistical support, training for health workers and mobile test labs.

Asked how long American troops would remain in the region, Rodriguez told reporters: “I’m sure it’ll be about a year … at this point, but that’s just a guess.”

He said that “we’ll have to play that by ear” and see how fast transmission rates decline.

Read more from this story HERE.

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US military personnel on Ebola mission to handle blood samples

By Justin Fishel.

The U.S. military mission to combat Ebola in West Africa is facing questions about the serious health risks American troops will encounter in heading to the epicenter of the deadly outbreak.

According to officials, a small group of trained military medical technicians on the ground will not be required to make direct contact with patients infected with the Ebola virus. However, they will have to handle infected blood samples, which Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday could be just as dangerous, if not more.

Already, three mobile-testing labs, staffed by three or four technicians each, have been deployed in Liberia as part of Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military’s effort to combat the Ebola virus. Four more labs have been requested.

Pentagon officials say the servicemembers on these small teams are the only individuals who will be intentionally handling any raw material that could be infected.

Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Africa Command, told Pentagon reporters on Tuesday that these teams are trained to take all the necessary precautions.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Ebola outbreak: Spread of deadly disease across Europe is ‘unavoidable’, warns WHO chief

By James Rush.

The spread of Ebola across Europe is “quite unavoidable”, the World Health Organisation has warned as four people were in hospital after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside Africa.

WHO European director Zsuzsanna Jakab has said while more cases will spread in Europe, the continent should be well prepared to control the disease.

Health officials in Spain today said four people – the nurse, her husband and two others – were being monitored in hospital in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.

“Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely,” Ms Jakab told Reuters.

“It is quite unavoidable … that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Neighbors Of Ebola Patient Feel ‘Discriminated Against’

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Photo Credit: CELLOU BINANI / AFP / GettyBy CBSDFW.COM

Residents in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood of Dallas are living near the epicenter of the Ebola scare in North Texas. Now, they say they’re facing a different challenge — discrimination.

Thomas Duncan stayed at an apartment in the community before being diagnosed with Ebola and admitted into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for treatment.

Dallas City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates says that she met with over 30 community leaders on Monday, trying to assess the needs of the residents. Most are concerned about the possible stigma of living near the apartment building.

“Unfortunately, they are feeling discriminated against,” said Gates. “We still have some that have been turned away from jobs. Some that have been turned away at retail locations. We’re getting them in touch with legal aid and any resources necessary.”

Gates believes that educating the public is the only way to reverse the stigma.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Courtney Perry / McClatchyEbola scare: Flight attendants told to be careful with bodily fluids

By Hugo Martin.

As health officials continue to monitor passengers who flew on two planes with an Ebola-infected flier, a flight attendants union has urged its members to be extra cautious handling bodily fluids.

The Assn. of Flight Attendants warned its 60,000 members on 19 airlines to be on the lookout for passengers exhibiting symptoms of Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa.

“Persons infected with the Ebola virus may exhibit symptoms such as a high fever, severe headache, nausea and/or abdominal pain,” the notice on the union’s Web page says. “If you observe these symptoms, report any concerns of a potentially infectious passenger to the captain and follow the reporting procedures as outlined by your airline.”

“Additionally, all bodily fluids should be treated as if they are known to be contagious.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Leon Neal / AFP‘In 1976 I discovered Ebola – now I fear an unimaginable tragedy’

By Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch.

Professor Piot, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. How did it happen?

I still remember exactly. One day in September, a pilot from Sabena Airlines brought us a shiny blue Thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire. In the Thermos, he wrote, there was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had recently fallen ill from a mysterious sickness in Yambuku, a remote village in the northern part of the country. He asked us to test the sample for yellow fever.

These days, Ebola may only be researched in high-security laboratories. How did you protect yourself back then?

We had no idea how dangerous the virus was. And there were no high-security labs in Belgium. We just wore our white lab coats and protective gloves. When we opened the Thermos, the ice inside had largely melted and one of the vials had broken. Blood and glass shards were floating in the ice water. We fished the other, intact, test tube out of the slop and began examining the blood for pathogens, using the methods that were standard at the time.

But the yellow fever virus apparently had nothing to do with the nun’s illness.

No. And the tests for Lassa fever and typhoid were also negative. What, then, could it be? Our hopes were dependent on being able to isolate the virus from the sample. To do so, we injected it into mice and other lab animals. At first nothing happened for several days. We thought that perhaps the pathogen had been damaged from insufficient refrigeration in the Thermos. But then one animal after the next began to die. We began to realise that the sample contained something quite deadly.

Read more from this story HERE.

Nurse Contracts Ebola in Spain

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Photo Credit: SPANISH DEFENSE MINISTRYBy D News.

In what is believed to be the first infection outside of Africa, an assistant nurse at a Madrid hospital where two Ebola patients died has contracted the virus herself, health officials said Monday.

“Two tests were done and the two were positive,” a spokesman for the health department of the regional government of Madrid said.

How Can Ebola Be Stopped?

The woman works at Madrid’s La Paz-Carlos III hospital where two missionaries who were repatriated from Africa with Ebola died from the disease, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

“We do not know yet if she treated any of the two missionaries,” the spokeswoman said.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / Paul WhiteSPAIN PLACES HUSBAND OF EBOLA NURSE IN QUARANTINE

By AP.

Spain has placed in quarantine the husband of a Spanish nurse who has tested positive for the Ebola virus in the first known transmission outside West Africa.

Public Health Director Mercedes Vinuesa told Parliament on Tuesday that authorities were drawing up a list of other people who may have had contact with the nurse so that they can be monitored.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Won't Impose Travel Ban to Ebola-Ravaged Areas Because it "Could Impede Efforts by Aid Workers"

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Photo Credit: AP / Tanya BindraTop government health officials say they are opposed to placing a ban on travelers from Ebola-infected countries, warning that shutting down borders could impede efforts by aid workers to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

The idea of a ban gained currency this past week after the nation’s first case was diagnosed in Dallas. Proponents have argued that it would help ensure public safety.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that a travel embargo on West African countries that are struggling with Ebola would make it much harder for them to control the virus.

“You isolate them, you can cause unrest in the country,” Fauci told “Fox News Sunday.” ”It’s conceivable that governments could fall if you just isolate them completely.”

British Airways and some other airlines have suspended flights from those countries, and overall traffic to and from the affected areas has dropped.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sierra Leone Records 121 Ebola Deaths in a Single Day

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / JAMES GIAHYUEBy Umaru Fofana, Joe Bavier and Jonathan Oatis / Reuters.

Sierra Leone recorded 121 deaths from Ebola and scores of new infections in one of the single deadliest days since the disease appeared in the West African country more than four months ago, government health statistics showed on Sunday.

The figures, which covered the period through Saturday, put the total number of deaths at 678, up from 557 the day before. The daily statistics compiled by Sierra Leone’s Emergency Operations Centre also showed 81 new cases of the hemorrhagic fever.

Ebola was first reported in Guinea in March and has since spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone in what has become the worst epidemic of the disease since Ebola was identified in 1976.

Smaller outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal were brought under control. The United States last week confirmed its first Ebola case, a Liberian national who had traveled to Texas.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AFP / Pascal GuyotUS journalist with Ebola to arrive in Nebraska Monday

By AFP.

Doctors in Nebraska are set for the Monday arrival of Ashoka Mukpo, an NBC television cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia, the hospital where he will be treated said.

The Nebraska Medical Center on Sunday tweeted “Patient to arrive tomorrow,” without specifying an exact time.

Earlier the hospital had announced on Twitter that it had “received a call from the US State Department letting us know that we will be receiving a second Ebola patient. Possibly on Monday morning. Our 40+ member team with the Biocontainment Unit is ready.”

The hospital has already treated Rick Sacra, a doctor who overcame the virus and was given the experimental drug TKM-Ebola.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / Tanya BindraShipment of medical supplies to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone reportedly delayed for weeks

By Fox News.

A shipping container filled with approximately $140,000 worth of medical equipment needed to fight the spread of the Ebola virus in the West African country of Sierra Leone has sat untouched on the docks of the country’s capital for nearly two months according to a published report.

According to The New York Times the shipment of hospital linens, protective suits, face masks, and other items arrived in the port of Freetown Aug. 9, but has still not been cleared by government officials.

The Ebola outbreak has killed over 3,000 people, with the vast majority of deaths occurring in Sierra Leone and two other West African countries, Liberia and Guinea. Local health officials have been overwhelmed by the spread of the virus, and some say the case of the delayed container is a vivid illustration of how government corruption has undercut efforts to fight Ebola as well.

Read more from this story HERE.

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If Obama thinks Ebola is a ‘national security priority,’ why no travel ban?

By Gregg Jarrett.

President Obama declared the Ebola outbreak a “national security priority.” That was three weeks ago. Yet, he has failed to treat it as such.

He could ban all travel into the U.S. of any person who has been in the affected West African countries. He has the legal power to do so.

Why hasn’t he?

The fundamental duty of the nation’s chief executive is to protect its citizens. Under Article II of the Constitution, he is duty-bound to respond to threats and to conduct the country’s foreign affairs. When a crisis presents itself, the president has nearly unfettered power and discretion to act. This includes protecting the health and safety of Americans. Does stopping the deadly spread of Ebola constitute such a crisis?

“This is a social crisis, a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a threat to national security beyond the outbreak zones.” Those are the words of the director general of World Health Organization during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Ebola protection myths busted: ‘direct contact’ means indirect contact, N95 masks, full-face respirators and more

By Mike Adams.

If ebola goes airborne, its spread would be utterly impossible to stop, say many experts. Some scientists insist the possibility of the virus mutating into a full-blown “airborne” variety is rather small, but no one denies that such risk increases with each and every day that the contagion is not stopped in Africa.

At the same time, ebola is now in America, having been confirmed in “patient zero” Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas. Because of this, a huge number of Americans and Canadians are now wisely investing in protective gear such as Tyvek body suits, N95 masks, respirators, latex gloves, isolation gowns and more. But most people have little or no training on how to use these items properly, so in the interests of public health and safety, I’m going to cover a few basics here.

As far as my own background goes, I’m trained in microbiology testing and I’m the director of the Natural News Forensic Food Lab, where I conduct food contamination testing using ICP-MS instrumentation. Although I’m not a doctor, I can easily cover the basics of safety from exposure to viral pathogens.

How ebola spreads

The key point to understand in all this is that you can catch ebola by coming into contact with any body fluid that originated from another person.

Read more from this story HERE.

MSNBC Points Finger at NRA For 'Making the Ebola Crisis Worse'

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MSNBC anchor Krystal Ball and NBC correspondent Anne Thompson shamelessly politicized the Ebola crisis in a Thursday op-ed on MSNBC.com. Ball and Thompson bewailed how due to “Senate dysfunction and NRA opposition, we don’t have a surgeon general right now….during a time when, we not only have Ebola arriving on our shores, but are also dealing with the mysterious Enterovirus, which is infecting and contributing to the deaths of children in the U.S.”

The two on-air personalities led their piece, “How the NRA is making the Ebola crisis worse,” by noting that “poll by Harvard found that 39% of U.S. adults are concerned about a large outbreak here, and more than a quarter fear someone in their immediate family could get sick with Ebola.” They continued with a lament: “If only there was someone around who could educate the American public about the actual level of risk. Someone who was trusted as a public health expert and whose job it was to help us understand what we really need to worry about and what precautions we should take.”

Ball (the winner of the MRC’s “#obamacarefail” Dishonor Award) and Thompson underlined that these roles are among the “primary responsibilities of the United States surgeon general,” and that “there’s just one problem: Thanks to Senate dysfunction and NRA opposition, we don’t have a surgeon general right now. In fact, we haven’t had a surgeon general for more than a year now — even though the president nominated the eminently qualified Dr. Vivek Murthy back in November 2013.”

After devoting several paragraphs touting the role of the surgeon general, the two NBC News employees outlined their case for why the National Rifle Association is to blame for the situation:

…Murthy’s nomination has been held up by Republicans and a few red state Democrats due to this surprisingly controversial stance: He believes that guns can impact your health. Well, to be fair, this conservative coalition is not troubled by his stance, so much as they are fearful of the NRA, which decided to try to scuttle Murthy’s confirmation. The NRA wrote a strongly worded letter, Rand Paul put a hold on the nomination, and Red State Democrats begged Harry Reid to not force them to vote. It’s funny that the strongly worded letters of ordinary citizens don’t seem to have quite the same effect.

Read more from this story HERE.

Man Dies of 'Marburg', Fever Similar to Ebola, in Uganda

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Photo Credit: ShutterstockA man has died in Uganda’s capital after an outbreak of Marburg, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, authorities said on Sunday, adding that a total of 80 people who came into contact with him had been put under quarantine.

Marburg starts with a severe headache followed by haemorrhaging and leads to death in 80% or more of cases in about nine days. It is from the same family of viruses as Ebola, which has killed thousands in West Africa in recent months.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the Marburg virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids such as saliva and blood or by handling infected wild animals such as monkeys.

Samples taken

The health ministry said in a statement that the 30-year old radiographer died on 28 September while working at a hospital in Kampala. He had started feeling unwell about 10 days earlier and his condition kept deteriorating.

Read more from this story HERE.

UPDATE: Hospital Says Dallas Ebola Patient in Critical Condition

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Photo Credit: AP / LM OteroBy JAMIE STENGLE AND EMILY SCHMALL.

After hospital officials on Saturday said the condition of the lone Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has worsened, the woman he came to Texas to visit said she is praying for his recovery.

Louise Troh said that she was not aware until a reporter told her that Thomas Eric Duncan’s condition had been deemed critical and that she had not spoken with him Saturday.

“I pray in Jesus’ name that it will be all right,” Troh said in a telephone interview from the home where she and three others are being isolated.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas didn’t provide any further details or respond to questions about Duncan’s health on Saturday. The hospital has previously said Duncan, who was being kept in isolation, was in serious but stable condition.

Duncan traveled from disease-ravaged Liberia to Dallas last month before he began showing symptoms of the disease that has killed some 3,400 people in West Africa.

Read more from this story HERE.

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For CDC team in Dallas, the search is on for those who had contact with Ebola patient

By Amy Ellis Nutt.

For the doctors, nurses and epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who landed in Dallas this week, it all boiled down to this: Who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in this country to be diagnosed with the deadly Ebola infection, and who might have had contact with him? In other words, it was all about information.

First up was interviewing Duncan, known in CDC investigative parlance as the “index subject.” Then the 10-member team led by infectious disease expert David Kuhar began where most information-gatherers begin — by making a list. Actually, by making two lists. One included the names of the people with whom Duncan might have had contact in his two visits to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. The other list — well, it included everyone else.

They divided themselves into two teams. Those creating the hospital list took up residence in a human resources office on the eighth floor of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Pediatrician and epidemic intelligence officer Matt Karwowski was assigned to the community list. He and his team holed up in a first-floor conference room in the Fogelson Forum, next to the main medical building.

Three CDC investigators and one county epidemiologist would visit each home on the two lists and interview every person in every household who might have come in contact with Duncan.

Read more from this story HERE.

ISIS to Attack US with Ebola? Jihadists 'to Send Infected Militants' to America to Spread Disease

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Photo Credit: Wikimedia CommonsIf latest reports are to be believed, the Islamic State militants might be conspiring to deliberately infect jihadists with the deadly Ebola virus and send them to America in order to spread the disease in the US – an event that could see America being attacked in a new pseudo-war.

The Israeli News Agency, a site which claims to be Israel’s first online news organisation has confirmed the authenticity of the report saying it “clears all news items relating to Israeli security with the Israel government press office.”

The agency said, citing “Israeli security sources”, that dozens of ISIS fighters in Syria have fallen ill and had symptoms of Ebola. This news quickly ignited a new conspiracy theory claiming that ISIS is planning to send Ebola-infected militants into the US to spread the disease.

“While Western nations fighting the Islamic State might consider this reported Ebola outbreak among radical jihadists to be welcome news, there is a very big, very dangerous downside to Islamic terrorists being carriers of the virus,” Norvell Rose, the winner of numerous journalism honours, writes for WesternJournalism.com.

Read more from this story HERE.

Immigration Expert: Obama Admin Responsible for Letting Ebola Patient into U.S.

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Photo Credit: Breitbart By Matthew Boyle.

President Barack Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and Secretary of State John Kerry are directly responsible for allowing Ebola into the United States, the Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Studies Jessica Vaughan told Breitbart News.

Vaughan points to federal law–the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)–which she notes gives the administration “broad authority” to bar non-citizens like Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient allowed into the U.S., from entering the country. The administration took no steps pursuant to that federal law, however, to block people like him from potentially endangering Americans.

“They have broad authority to bar any non-citizen from entering the country,” she said in a phone interview with Breitbart News. “But the INA does have a provision on the books already that bars people who have communicable diseases who of public health significance. It gives the authority to HHS to create that list. The language says it’s only people who have them who are barred.”

“So what you have to do is set up a system of screening to make sure people you’re allowing to travel into the country are clear,” she explained. “We’ve done that with some of these other diseases in the past-and the way they do that is every visa issuing post has local doctors that they work with who will screen people who get immigrant visas to make sure they don’t have tuberculosis or leprosy or other diseases. You could similarly require that people who want to travel here on visitor’s visas go through a medical screening and put the burden of proof on the traveler to show they are not infected and are not carrying the disease.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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NBC cameraman tests positive for Ebola in Liberia

By AP.

An American cameraman helping to cover the Ebola outbreak in Liberia for NBC News has tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the United States for treatment.

NBC News President Deborah Turness said Thursday the rest of the NBC News crew including medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman will be flown back to the U.S. and placed in quarantine for 21 days “in an abundance of caution.”

The freelance cameraman has been working in Liberia for three years for Vice News and other media outlets, and has been covering the Ebola epidemic. He began shooting for NBC on Tuesday. The network is withholding his name at his family’s request.

He began feeling tired and achy Wednesday and discovered he had a slight fever. He went to a treatment center Thursday to be tested, and is being kept there, said Snyderman, who was interviewed Thursday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / LM OteroMishandling of U.S. Ebola patient prompts CDC alert to hospitals

By Jason Sickles.

A Texas emergency room’s mishandling of the country’s first Ebola patient prompted the CDC to issue a nationwide alert to all hospitals updating them of how to appropriately respond to possible cases of the deadly disease.

“It’s a teachable moment, as we say,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Thursday press conference.

The latest guidance includes a poster with quick rules for evaluating returned travelers and a checklist.

The move comes nearly a week after Thomas Eric Duncan showed up at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital with what officials described as fever and abdominal pain. Duncan, who had just moved to Dallas from West Africa, reportedly told hospital workers that he was recently in Liberia, one of the hardest hit areas of the deadly Ebola crisis.

Investigators in Texas are trying to track down some 100 people who might have been in recent contact with Duncan. A dozen of them are already under quarantine or being monitored for Ebola symptoms.

Read more from this story HERE.

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For quarantined relatives in U.S. Ebola case, extra cautions, hope and prayer

By Amy Ellis Nutt.

Thomas Duncan shivered in the king-size bed, even though he was tucked under the covers and fully dressed — pants, socks and two shirts. It was Sunday morning, Sept. 28, and Duncan, from Liberia, had been in the United States visiting Louise Troh at her Dallas apartment for the past week. He felt weak and cold, he told Troh’s daughter, Youngor Jallah.

So Jallah took a quick trip to Wal-Mart and bought a $50 brown cotton blanket. When she returned, she draped it over Duncan’s shoulders and then gently lifted him by his back to try to get him to drink some hot tea. That’s when she looked into his eyes and knew in her heart that things were very bad.

“I’ve been seeing Ebola on TV, how it starts, with muscle pain, red eyes. When I see his eye, it is all red, and I think maybe this time it is Ebola virus and I should be careful,” Jallah, 35, said in an interview with The Washington Post at her nearby apartment, where she and her family have been quarantined.

She took his temperature — 102 degrees.

“I’m going to call an ambulance,” she said.

Read more from this story HERE.