W.Africa: Ebola Infected, No Where to Go

[Roisin]

In Ebola-stricken West Africa, many of the sick ‘have nowhere to go’


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/ebola-stricken-west-africa/


Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the U.N.’s World Health Organization, said in a conference call that there are an estimated 3,500 confirmed Ebola cases mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. More than 40 percent of new cases occurred in the past 21 days.

“The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts,” she said.


“The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts,” she said.

On Aug. 28, the World Health Organization released an updated Ebola strategy aimed at stopping the spread of the disease in the affected countries in six to nine months. The agency also is reviewing the most promising experimental therapies and vaccines later this week to add to the response plan, said Chan.

The bulk of Ebola infections occur when family members take care of each other, said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security at WHO. There aren’t enough beds in treatment clinics, so the sick stay at home, he said. “Ill people have nowhere to go.”

[Roisin]

Ebola outbreak: Five co-authors of latest study killed by virus before their research was published


Five co-authors of the latest study on Ebola were killed by the virus before their research was published, highlighting the huge risks undertaken by those working to combat its spread.

The study, published on Thursday, discovered the virus has mutated many times during the outbreak in West Africa, making establishing a treatment more difficult.

Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi, Alice Kovoma, Mohamed Fullah and Sheik Umar Khan worked with lead researchers at Harvard University to examine the current outbreak.

Science Mag said all five were experienced members of the Kenema Government Hospital’s (KGH) Lassa fever team. Lassa fever infections have similar symptoms to Ebola.

Their work sequenced the virus genomes from 78 patients and traced the outbreak in Sierra Leone to a funeral of a healer, which a pregnant Kenema Government Hospital Ebola patient and other women who were also infected had attended.

Two months before his death, Mr Khan had described the dangers of treating people with the disease, telling Reuters he feared for his life.

He said: “I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life. Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for somebody who is sickened by disease. Even with the full protective clothing you put on, you are at risk.”

More than half of the 3,069 people infected by Ebola have died from the disease, which has spread across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Nigeria and now Senegal.

The World Health Organisation has warned the current outbreak could infect up to 20,000 people before it ends.

The study, 'Genomic surveillance elucidates Ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak', is published online in Science Magazine.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-virus-five-coauthors-of-latest-study-on-outbreak-died-before-research-was-published-9701346.html


Cuts at W.H.O. Hurt Response to Ebola Crisis


The W.H.O., the United Nations agency assigned in its constitution to direct international health efforts, tackle epidemics and help in emergencies, has been badly weakened by budget cuts in recent years, hobbling its ability to respond in parts of the world that need it most. Its outbreak and emergency response units have been slashed, veterans who led previous fights against Ebola and other diseases have left, and scores of positions have been eliminated — precisely the kind of people and efforts that might have helped blunt the outbreak in West Africa before it ballooned into the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/world/africa/cuts-at-who-hurt-response-to-ebola-crisis.html

[conk]

The W.H.O. should be more accurately labeled W.H.O.r.e.s for the pharmaceutical paradigm.