Ebola, news and discussion

[EnchantedNightDweller]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Just to keep facts straight...the nurse in Dallas who was wearing the hazmat gear was exposed to the Ebola virus due to a suspected "breach in protocol." I am clarifying this because I think it is vitally important that we keep to the facts as much as possible when reporting anything pertaining to Ebola so that we are not spreading undue fear throughout our community.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/13/health...pen/index.html

I sincerely hope whoever is feeding CNN the information is right.

[TruTexan]

Originally Posted by EnchantedNightDweller

I sincerely hope whoever is feeding CNN the information is right.

The CDC is in Dallas in large numbers as of midnight last night and they are going over the protocol for caregivers keeping safe and doing more training according to the news tonight from Dallas and from the CDC reports today. The CDC is the the information provider to televised stations across the country with CNN being part of that. Also, the Dallas Dept. Health is heavily involved and giving information televised at the same time during the news broadcasts via telephone. I've watched the news just about everyday since the outbreak.
They don't actually know what caused the transmission but "assume " it was an innocent and accidental breach in protocol. The CDC and the Presbytarian hospital along with the Dallas Health dept are doing extensive research into how this may have happened; they are also trying to calm the fears of other hospital employees and other surrounding hospital employees and healthcare workers in informational meetings as well as to the public.

[*Anya*]

14 October 2014 Last updated at 06:54 ET

The Ebola patient was being treated at St Georg hospital in Leipzig

A United Nations medical worker infected with Ebola has died at a hospital in Germany. Doctors at the hospital in Leipzig said the man, 56, originally from Sudan, died despite receiving experimental drugs to treat the virus.

The outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people since March - mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.

The World Health Organization says the outbreak is the "the most severe, acute health emergency in modern times".

The man had been working as a UN medical official in Liberia - one of the worst affected countries - when he caught Ebola.

He arrived in Germany last Thursday for treatment and was put into a hermetically sealed ward, accessed through airlock systems.

"Despite intensive medical measures and maximum efforts by the medical team, the 56-year-old UN employee succumbed to the serious infectious disease," a statement from St Georg hospital said.

He was the second member of the UN team in Liberia to die from the virus, the BBC's Jenny Hill in Berlin says.

He was the third Ebola patient to be treated for the deadly virus in Germany after contracting the disease in the outbreak zone in West Africa.

Front-line health workers are at high risk of contamination

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is alarmed by the number of health workers who have been exposed to the disease.

The WHO has warned the epidemic threatens the "very survival" of societies and could lead to failed states.

Note: figures have occasionally been revised down as suspected or probable cases are found to be unrelated to Ebola. They do not include one death in the US recorded on 8 October.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29611713

[MsTinkerbelly]

There was an incident yesterday in Los Angeles, where a man with a mask got onto a Metro bus and told the bus driver he had Ebola. When leaving the bus, he told the entire bus he had Ebola and threw his mask on the floor of the bus.

The driver drove back to the yard, told his supervisors, and thus began the isoation of the bus and the driver. They are saying they have the tape from the bus, and if they find this man they will bring charges of making a terrorist threat. What a waste of resources.

Let the crazy begin....

[SleepyButch]

I just read that the Zuckerbergs are donating $25 million to the CDC foundation.


Also the WHO says that west Africa could see up to 10,000 new cases a week within two months. The confirmed that the death rate currently is 70% over there.

If that continues, in an 8 week time, approximately 56,000 people will die. That's a lot of lost lives.



NEW YORK (AP) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are donating $25 million to the CDC Foundation to help address the Ebola epidemic.

The money will be used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response effort in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and elsewhere in the world where Ebola is a threat, the foundation said Tuesday.

The grant follows a $9 million donation made by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen last month. Zuckerberg and Chan are making the grant from their fund at the nonprofit Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Also on Tuesday, the World Health Organization said West Africa could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months and confirmed that the death rate in the current outbreak is now 70 percent. The disease has killed more than 4,000 people, nearly all of them in West Africa. The WHO has called the outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times."

"The most important step we can take is to stop Ebola at its source. The sooner the world comes together to help West Africa, the safer we all will be," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a statement.

[cricket26]

[MsTinkerbelly]

Originally Posted by cricket26

They also have someone else that was close to Nina in isolation as they are showing symptoms. This was per CNN, just a few minutes ago.

[EnchantedNightDweller]

CNN is reporting that a second health worker has it. CDC admitting more should have been done.

[*Anya*]

2nd health care worker tests positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
By Holly Yan, CNN
updated 6:52 AM EDT, Wed October 15, 2014


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
>>Official: Duncan should have been transferred out of Texas immediately
>>Health department has interviewed the patient to find contacts
>>The second health care worker with Ebola reported a fever Tuesday
**Like nurse Tina Pham, the second worker cared for Thomas Eric Duncan**

(CNN) -- A second health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan has tested positive for Ebola, health officials said Wednesday -- casting further doubt on the hospital's ability to handle Ebola and protect employees. The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated, health department spokeswoman Carrie Williams said.

The preliminary Ebola test was done late Tuesday at the state public health laboratory in Austin, and the results came back around midnight. A second test will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

"Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the health department said. But the pool of contacts could be small, since Ebola can only be transmitted when an infected person shows symptoms. Less than a day passed between the onset of the worker's symptoms and isolation at the hospital.

An official close to the situation says that in hindsight, Duncan should have been transferred immediately to either Emory University Hospital in Atlanta or Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Those hospitals are among only four in the country that have biocontainment units and have been preparing for years to treat a highly infectious disease like Ebola.

"If we knew then what we know now about this hospital's ability to safely care for these patients, then we would have transferred him to Emory or Nebraska," the official told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

"I think there are hospitals that are more than ready, but I think there are some that are not."

The latest infection marks the second-ever transmission of Ebola in the United States. Both stemmed from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Late last week, nurse Tina Pham tested positive for Ebola. She also took care of Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan died last week. On Tuesday, Pham said she was doing well. "I am blessed by the support of family and friends, and am blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world," she said.

Troubling allegations

Also Tuesday, National Nurses United made troubling allegations about the hospital, claiming "guidelines were constantly changing" and "there were no protocols" about how to deal with the deadly virus." "The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place, and that those protocols are not in place anywhere in the United States as far as we can tell," NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro said. "We're deeply alarmed."

Nurses were told to wrap their necks with medical tape when equipment left their necks exposed; they felt unsupported and unprepared, and they received no hands-on training, union co-president Deborah Burger said. A Texas Health Presbyterian spokesman did not respond to the specific allegations, but said patient and employee safety is the hospital's top priority.

Global epidemic
While the Texas hospital deals with its third Ebola patient, the situation in West Africa is getting increasingly dire.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola this year in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
And it could be up to 10,000 new Ebola cases per week in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by the end of this year as the outbreak spreads, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama says he'll reach out directly to heads of state to encourage other countries to do more to fight back.

"There are a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up," he said. "Those that have stepped up, all of us, are going to have to do more."

CNN's Catherine E. Shoichet and Tina Burnside contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/15/health...bola-outbreak/