Category Archives: pandemic

Contagious Disease Surveillance | Virus Awareness | Ebola Map | HealthMap

“The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread. On Friday, WHO announced the Ebola outbreak — the largest and longest in history — is worrying enough to merit being declared an international health emergency. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and for polio in May. This agency had convened an expert committee this week to assess the severity of the ongoing epidemic in West Africa. The current outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in March and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola and the death rate has been about 50 percent.”

via Contagious Disease Surveillance | Virus Awareness | Ebola Map | HealthMap.

Spanish priest with Ebola virus flown home for treatment | News | DW.DE | 07.08.2014

A Spanish military Airbus carrying Father Miguel Pajares landed at Madrid’s Torrejon air base shortly at 8:15 a.m. local time (0615 GMT) on Thursday. The A310 had been equipped with plastic isolation tents.

The 75-year-old Roman Catholic priest was one of three people who had tested positive for Ebola at the San Jose hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia earlier this week. Juliana Bohi, a nun from Equatorial Guinea, who holds Spanish citizenship, was also brought back to Madrid, although she hasn’t tested positive for the virus. Both had been helping to treat Ebola patients at the hospital.

via Spanish priest with Ebola virus flown home for treatment | News | DW.DE | 07.08.2014.

Q & A On Experimental Treatments and Vaccines for Ebola | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC

What is ZMapp?

ZMapp, being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., is an experimental treatment, for use with individuals infected with Ebola virus. It has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness. The product is a combination of three different monoclonal antibodies that bind to the protein of the Ebola virus.

How effective is the experimental treatment?

It is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective, since it is still in an experimental stage and has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness. Some patients infected with Ebola virus do get better spontaneously or with supportive care. It’s important to note that the standard treatment for Ebola remains supportive therapy.

This consists of the following measures:

balancing the patients’ fluids and electrolytes;

maintaining their oxygen status and blood pressure; and

treating them for any complicating infections.

Why aren’t more people getting ZMapp?

At this time, very few courses of this experimental treatment have been manufactured. Since the product is still in an experimental stage, it is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective. The manufacturer of this experimental treatment continues to research and evaluate the product’s safety and effectiveness. It has not yet been tested in humans for safety or effectiveness and much more study is needed.

Did the NIH play a role in getting the experimental therapy to the two U.S. patients in Liberia?

This experimental treatment was arranged privately by Samaritan’s Purse, the private humanitarian organization, which employed one of the Americans who contracted the virus in Liberia. Samaritan’s Purse contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who referred them to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH was able to provide the organization with the appropriate contacts at the private company developing this treatment. The NIH was not involved with procuring, transporting, approving, or administering the experimental treatments. {But they did not stop the drug from being transmitted and given – aka: turned away and is not enforcing its own regulations to protect the public – there is a procedure to ask for and quickly get emergency experimental treatment|

via Q & A On Experimental Treatments and Vaccines for Ebola | Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever | CDC.

WHO | Ebola virus disease

Key facts

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.

EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.

EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.

The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.

Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.

Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks, in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo. The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name.

Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebolavirus comprises 5 distinct species:

Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV)

Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)

Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)

Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV)

Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).

BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date.

via WHO | Ebola virus disease.

“Forget Media – getting too hyped” – read: WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa

“WHO=World Health Organization”

Between 2 and 4 August 2014, a total of 108 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 45 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

via WHO | Ebola virus disease update – West Africa.

AFRICA/LIBERIA – Ebola: the director of St. Joseph’s Hospital, in Monrovia has died – Fides News Agency

{Brother Patrick was not an American, so he was not offered the experimental US drug but neither were hundreds of other people who are in the process of dying from Ebola}

Brother Patrick Nshamdze, director of the St. Joseph’s hospital (Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God), in Monrovia (Liberia) died after contracting the Ebola virus. Brother Patrick was a native of Cameroon, he had studied in Rome for 2 years and was general director of the hospital in Monrovia.

“The authorities have isolated all public offices and also our hospital in order to carry out the operations of disinfestation”, says to Fides Agency Brother Pascal Ahodegnon, General councilor in charge of the African area of the Order. “Another of our confreres, of Spanish nationality, and two sisters have been hospitalized”.

Brother Pascal says that “Liberia is isolated but we continue to provide assistance with our facilities while our NGO is sending aid, which unfortunately is not enough to make up for all the needs”.

“As there is still no specific cure for Ebola what is needed are sanitizers, gloves and masks to protect healthcare workers as well as I.V’s and anticoagulant to rehydrate patients and stop bleeding. So far these are the only measures to try to prevent the disease from spreading”,

via AFRICA/LIBERIA – Ebola: the director of St. Joseph’s Hospital, in Monrovia has died – Fides News Agency.

Nigerian Doctor Who Attended To Liberian Man Comes Down With Ebola Virus In Lagos | Sahara Reporters

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, has just confirmed that one of the doctors who attended to Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian, who recently died of Ebola in Nigeria, is now sick with the disease.

Chukwu said two other people placed under quarantine were showing signs of the disease, although it is too early to say if their symptoms relates to Ebola.

Sawyer was Nigeria’s first case of Ebola death two weeks ago, and since his demise there have been widespread fears  that some of the more than 70 people he had contact with also develop the virus.

via Nigerian Doctor Who Attended To Liberian Man Comes Down With Ebola Virus In Lagos | Sahara Reporters.

WHO | WHO Director-General assesses the Ebola outbreak with three West African presidents

First, this outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries. As I said before, this meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response.

In addition, the outbreak is affecting a large number of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers, one of the most essential resources for containing an outbreak. To date, more than 60 health care workers have lost their lives in helping others. Some international staff are infected. These tragic infections and deaths significantly erode response capacity.

Second, the situation in West Africa is of international concern and must receive urgent priority for decisive action at national and international levels. Experiences in Africa over nearly four decades tell us clearly that, when well managed, an Ebola outbreak can be stopped.

This is not an airborne virus. Transmission requires close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, also after death. Apart from this specific situation, the general public is not at high risk of infection by the Ebola virus.

At the same time, it would be extremely unwise for national authorities and the international community to allow an Ebola virus to circulate widely and over a long period of time in human populations.

Constant mutation and adaptation are the survival mechanisms of viruses and other microbes. We must not give this virus opportunities to deliver more surprises.

Third, this is not just a medical or public health problem. It is a social problem. Deep-seated beliefs and cultural practices are a significant cause of further spread and a significant barrier to rapid and effective containment. This social dimension must also be addressed as an integral part of the overall response.

Fourth, in some areas, chains of transmission have moved underground. They are invisible. They are not being reported. Because of the high fatality rate, many people in affected areas associate isolation wards with a sure death sentence, and prefer to care for loved ones in homes or seek assistance from traditional healers.

Such hiding of cases defeats strategies for rapid containment. Moreover, public attitudes can create a security threat to response teams when fear and misunderstanding turn to anger, hostility, or violence.

Finally, despite the absence of a vaccine or curative therapy, Ebola outbreaks can most certainly be contained. Bedrocks of outbreak containment include early detection and isolation of cases, contact tracing and monitoring of contacts, and rigorous procedures for infection control.

Moreover, we do have some evidence that early detection of cases and early implementation of supportive therapy increases the chances of survival. This is another message that needs to be communicated to the public.

via WHO | WHO Director-General assesses the Ebola outbreak with three West African presidents.

Threat from drug-resistant malaria is ‘immense’ | Asia | DW.DE | 31.07.2014

The study, carried out by the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit, concluded that the strand of the disease that is resistant to the world’s most effective antimalarial drug – artemisinin – is now firmly established in border regions in four Southeast Asian countries. The scientists analyzed blood samples from over 1,200 malaria patients in 10 countries across Asia and Africa and found that Plasmodium falciparum, which is the most deadly form of the malaria-causing parasite and resistant to the treatment drug, is now common in parts of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.

via Threat from drug-resistant malaria is ‘immense’ | Asia | DW.DE | 31.07.2014.

Promising Ebola Drugs Stuck in Lab Limbo as Outbreak Rages in Africa

{Although the writer is well respected using the term promising feeds doubts about regulations designed to keep people safe and researchers accountable. This is not just red tape for the sake of red tape. Years ago, a drug with great promise was released and “oops” babies with deformed arms and legs were being born. Just a few years ago, a widely prescribed drug was found to “oops” increase the likelihood of strokes and was withdrawn. Research at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland is done to protect members of the military from disease in areas of the world where they may be asked to serve. If they had }

Yet, some experimental therapies and vaccines show promise. Some show excellent efficacy when given to nonhuman primates deliberately infected with the virus.

Of the experimental vaccines, most work only to protect against infection. But one—designed by scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland—protected half of the animals injected with lethal amounts of Ebola virus when administered 30 minutes post exposure.

via Promising Ebola Drugs Stuck in Lab Limbo as Outbreak Rages in Africa.