Meanwhile in Africa...

[Russell]

Chief Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone has contracted the deadly disease himself

The “national hero” chief doctor leading the fight against the deadly Ebola virus outbreak in Sierra Leone has himself been infected with the disease, the president’s office has announced.

Sheik Umar Khan, a 39-year-old virologist who is personally credited with treating more than 100 Ebola victims, has now been admitted to a treatment ward at the heart of the outbreak in Kailahun.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation, the virus has killed more than 600 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – including 19 new deaths in just the four days prior to Saturday’s report.

[...]

He is not the first health worker to contract the disease in recent weeks, and on Monday dozens of nurses at the government hospital in Kenema – one of the world’s leading Ebola diagnosis facilities – went on strike following the death of three colleagues, the BBC reported.

It was nonetheless not immediately clear how Dr Khan came to be infected. The disease is passed on through bodily fluids such as sweat and saliva – but on a visit to the Kenema facility in late June, Reuters reporters heard how the doctor was “always meticulous with protection, wearing overalls, mask, gloves and special footwear”.

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In the mean time:

Chinese city sealed off after bubonic plague death

[matsuki]

[Coligny]

It was nonetheless not immediately clear how Dr Khan came to be infected. The disease is passed on through bodily fluids such as sweat and saliva – but on a visit to the Kenema facility in late June, Reuters reporters heard how the doctor was “always meticulous with protection, wearing overalls, mask, gloves and special footwear”.

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In lab settings ebola is a BSL4 virus... His meat packing worker outfit was not going to cut it...

In the mean time:

Chinese city sealed off after bubonic plague death

That's how WWZ started... Please don't get Brad Pitt involved...

[Russell]

Ebola spreads to Nigeria

An Ebola outbreak that has left more than 660 people dead across West Africa has spread to the continent's most populous nation after a Liberian man with a high fever vomited aboard an airplane to Nigeria and then died there, officials said Friday.

The 40-year-old man had recently lost his sister to Ebola in Liberia, health officials there said. It was not immediately clear how he managed to board a flight, but he was moved into an isolation ward upon arrival in Nigeria on Tuesday and died on Friday.

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[Coligny]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

[IparryU]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

That's grounds for kill on sight IMO.

[Russell]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

That's grounds for kill on sight IMO.

And all her blood splattering around?!?

[IparryU]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

That's grounds for kill on sight IMO.

And all her blood splattering around?!?

Burn the area.

[Coligny]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

That's grounds for kill on sight IMO.

You should work for a 3 letter acronym agency...

Let's break laws AND make the problem bigger ! YAY !!!

[Russell]

American doctor in Liberia tests positive for Ebola

An American doctor working in the African country of Liberia has tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, an aid organization said Saturday.

Samaritan's Purse, based in North Carolina, said in a statement that Dr. Kent Brantly was being treated at an isolation center in a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. Brantly is the medical director for the aid organization's case management center in the city.

Brantly, 33, has been working with Samaritan's Purse in Liberia since October 2013 as part of the charity's post-residency program for doctors, group spokeswoman Melissa Strickland told The Associated Press. The organization's website says he had worked as a family practice physician in Fort Worth, Texas.

The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Photos of Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.

Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organization's website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.

"The hospital is taking great effort to be prepared," Brantly said. "In past Ebola outbreaks, many of the casualties have been healthcare workers who contracted the disease through their work caring for infected individuals."

Strickland says that Brantly's wife and two children had been living with him in Africa, but they are currently in the U.S.

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One positive aspect of this strain of Ebola is that the survival rate is 40%, rather than the usual 10%.

[Coligny]

That's like saying a car is better because the radio tune quicker on stations...

Incubation time ?
Total time patients are contagious ?
Time from contracting to remains fitting in a plastic bucket ?

The usual good with ebola is that it kill dead quick, therefore being a self solving problem.

What seems to happen here is that instead of killing 90% of a village its trying to kill 60% of few countries...

Also if Governements had the common sense to give proper advice on cooking safely bush meat instead of forbiding to eat it and leaving people the choice between risk of ebola and starvation...

[Russell]

That's like saying a car is better because the radio tune quicker on stations...

Incubation time ?
Total time patients are contagious ?
Time from contracting to remains fitting in a plastic bucket ?

The usual good with ebola is that it kill dead quick, therefore being a self solving problem.

What seems to happen here is that instead of killing 90% of a village its trying to kill 60% of few countries...

Also if Governements had the common sense to give proper advice on cooking safely bush meat instead of forbiding to eat it and leaving people the choice between risk of ebola and starvation...

Good points, Coligny.

Yes, it has been argued that because of the low survival rate, Ebola tends to spread not very efficiently. I do not know how the parameters are of this strain. Let's hope it can be contained. That said, my words sound like "let's hope it can be contained within a continent"...

[Coligny]

In any crisis scenario, when doctors start to fall with the disease... It's bad... On paper it's evident that health workers are next in line to die in a pandemic...
But losing those health workers when en masse is usually what switch gears from bad to nice having known you.

The next big step will be when Paris gets hit as it is a travel hub for those countries... Being also a touristic hub... Things can then become awesome...

Are we sure the dead remain dead ?

[IparryU]

Ebola patient on the loose in Freetown/Sierra Leone after escaping quarantine:

A woman who tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus is now on the loose in a Sierra Leone city with a population of around 1 million people. The woman had been quarantined in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, when she was “forcibly” removed by her family, according to Reuters.

That's grounds for kill on sight IMO.

You should work for a 3 letter acronym agency...

Let's break laws AND make the problem bigger ! YAY !!!

Ok... A fuckin disease that can spread and kill a large percentage of the area's population is worth breaking the law.

If this is some PR for the hospital/clinic you gots... Jist keep those sick fuckers away from the general population.

[Coligny]

Nice that the "make problem bigger" part didn't get your attention, definitely DHS material...

[Russell]

In any crisis scenario, when doctors start to fall with the disease... It's bad... On paper it's evident that health workers are next in line to die in a pandemic...
But losing those health workers when en masse is usually what switch gears from bad to nice having known you.

The next big step will be when Paris gets hit as it is a travel hub for those countries...

Being also a touristic hub... Things can then become awesome...

Suddenly, Japan's plan to increase the number of tourists doesn't sound like such a good idea...

Are we sure the dead remain dead ?

So, what will it be?!?

Ebola zombies or Ebola vampires?

[Mike Oxlong]

Nigeria: Ebola - In Contact Tracing, FG Orders More Liberians in Calabar to Lagos for Screening

[Russell]

More medical personnel victim to Ebola

One of Liberia's most high-profile doctors has died of Ebola, a government official said on Sunday, and a second US healthcare worker has been infected in what the World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling the largest outbreak ever recorded of the disease.

Dr Samuel Brisbane is the first Liberian doctor to die in an outbreak, which the WHO says has killed 129 people in the west African nation. A Ugandan doctor working in the country died this month.

Brisbane, who once served as a medical adviser to the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country's largest hospital, the John F Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.

After falling ill, he was taken to a treatment centre on the outskirts of the capital, where he died, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister.Under the supervision of health workers, family members escorted the doctor's body to a burial location west of the city, Nyenswah said.

He said another doctor who had been working in Liberia's central Bong County was being treated for Ebola at the centre where Brisbane died.

The situation "is getting more and more scary," Nyenswah said.

Last week Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor fell ill with the disease and in Liberia, Samaritan's Purse, a Christian charity, announced at the weekend that an American doctor was infected. Dr Kent Brantly had been isolated at the group's Ebola treatment centre at the ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

A second American, Nancy Writebol, later tested positive for the virus at the same medical compound, said Ken Isaacs, of Samaritan's Purse. Isaacs said Writebol, who works with the allied aid group SIM, was in a stable but serious condition at a hospital near Monrovia.

Brantly received intensive treatment on Sunday and was talking to his medical team and working on his computer, said Melissa Strickland, a spokeswoman for Samaritan's Purse.

"We are hopeful, but he is certainly not out of the woods yet," Strickland said.

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[Coligny]

Fuck, this won't help the spread:

Health
Tommy Trenchard / Reuters
Ebola outbreak forces West African airline to halt flights

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2 ... beria.html

[Coligny]

ok, not all hope is lost:

Liberian Official: Ebola Outbreak ‘Is Above The Control Of The National Government’

http://charlotte.cbslocal.com/2014/07/3 ... f3947704=1

[Coligny]

I don't know how to categorize these peoples...

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/nick- ... 42453.html

TL/DR ebola is not going to kill you, HOW DARE YOU PAY ATTENTION TO THIS instead of reading my trivial bullshits.

The guys manage to include the Y2K bug into the list of false scare...
Which was a posterchild for proper IT proactive management. We were not exactly sure how badly it could fuck things up. So most of everything was patched before in order to never have to know.
-> reaction from joe sixpack: nobody died so it was wasted muney, everyone is an idiot but me.

[Mike Oxlong]

Phillippines reports possible Ebola cases

The Phillipines has reported the country's first suspected cases of the Ebola virus. According to the country's health officials, seven workers who returned to the Phillipines from Sierra Leone are showing symptoms symilar to that of the tropical virus...

[matsuki]

Phillippines reports possible Ebola cases

The Phillipines has reported the country's first suspected cases of the Ebola virus. According to the country's health officials, seven workers who returned to the Phillipines from Sierra Leone are showing symptoms symilar to that of the tropical virus...

So...beware of jiji's that frequent those phillipine pubs?

[Russell]

Donald Trump says Ebola doctors 'must suffer the consequences'

Donald Trump thinks the work ebola doctors are doing to combat the threat of the deadly virus with no cure spreading across African borders is great.

But, he’s said, if they get infected, they’ll have to "suffer the consequences".

In a spectacular series of tweets posted over the weekend, the American business magnate stunned followers with his cut-throat approach to stopping the virus travelling overseas to American shores.

In short, if you’re from the United States and you get infected, he doesn’t think you should be allowed back.

His words come as American Dr. Kent Brantly was struck down with ebola in Africa during an aid mission. He returned to the US on Saturday, and has been receiving treatment at the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where is condition is said to be improving.

Missionary Nancy Writebol, Dr. Brantly’s assistant, also contracted ebola after she came into contact with suffering patients in Liberia. Both were working for Christian relief organisation Samaritan’s purse.

She is expected to be flown back to the United States to receive treatment later this week.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US, Dr. Tom Frieden, told the Associated Press: "I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care."

More

I kind of wish Trump himself contracted Ebola...

[Mike Oxlong]

Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight

[Russell]

Experts: Ebola Vaccine At Least 50 White People Away

With the death toll in West Africa continuing to rise amid a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, leading medical experts announced Wednesday that a vaccine for the deadly disease is still at least 50 white people from being developed. “While all measures are being taken to contain the spread of the contagion, an effective, safe, and reliable Ebola inoculation unfortunately remains roughly 50 to 60 white people away, if not more,” said Tulane University pathologist Gregory Wensmann, adding that while progress has been made over the course of the last two or three white people, a potential Ebola vaccination is still many more white people off. “We are confident, however, that with each passing white person, we’re moving closer to an eventual antigenic that will prevent and possibly even eradicate the disease.” Wensmann said he remained optimistic that the vaccine would not take considerably longer than his prediction, as waiting more than 50 white people for an effective preventative measure was something the world would simply not allow.

Link

Actually, they misunderestimated.

Experimental drug likely saved Ebola patients

On Thursday, Dr. Kent Brantly thought he was going to die.

It was the ninth day since the American missionary worker came down sick with Ebola in Liberia.

His condition worsening by the minute, Brantly called his wife to say goodbye.

Thankfully, the call was premature.

Brantly is back on his feet -- literally -- after receiving a last-ditch, highly experimental drug. Another American missionary with Ebola got the same.

Brantly's and Nancy Writebol's conditions significantly improved after receiving the medication, sources say. Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week, and Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday.

On July 22, Brantly woke up feeling feverish. Fearing the worst, Brantly immediately isolated himself. Writebol's symptoms started three days later. A rapid field blood test confirmed the infection in both of them after they had become ill with fever, vomiting and diarrhea.

It's believed Brantly and Writebol, who worked with the aid organization Samaritan's Purse, contracted Ebola from another health care worker at their hospital in Liberia, although the official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention case investigation has yet to be released.

The experimental drug, known as ZMapp, was developed by the biotech firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., which is based in San Diego. The patients were told that the treatment had never been tried before in a human being but had shown promise in small experiments with monkeys.

According to company documents, four monkeys infected with Ebola survived after being given the therapy within 24 hours after infection. Two of four other monkeys that started therapy within 48 hours after infection also survived. One monkey that was not treated died within five days of exposure to the virus.

Brantly and Writebol were aware of the risk of taking a new, little-understood treatment and gave informed consent, according to two sources familiar with the care of the missionary workers. In the monkeys, the experimental serum had been given within 48 hours of infection. Brantly didn't receive it until he'd been sick for nine days.

[...]

The ZMapp vials, stored at subzero temperatures, reached the hospital in Liberia where Brantly and Writebol were being treated Thursday morning. Doctors were instructed to allow the serum to thaw naturally without any additional heat. It was expected that it would be eight to 10 hours before the medicine could be given, according to a source familiar with the process.

Brantly asked that Writebol be given the first dose because he was younger and he thought he had a better chance of fighting it, and she agreed. However, as the first vial was still thawing, Brantly's condition took a sudden turn for the worse.

Brantly began to deteriorate and developed labored breathing. He told his doctors he thought he was dying, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the situation.

Knowing his dose was still frozen, Brantly asked if he could have Writebol's now-thawed medication. It was brought to his room and administered through an IV. Within an hour of receiving the medication, Brantly's condition dramatically improved. He began breathing easier; the rash over his trunk faded away. One of his doctors described the events as "miraculous."

By the next morning, Brantly was able to take a shower on his own before getting on a specially designed Gulfstream air ambulance jet to be evacuated to the United States.

Writebol also received a vial of the medication. Her response was not as remarkable, according to sources familiar with the treatment. However, doctors on Sunday administered Writebol a second dose of the medication, which resulted in significant improvement.

She was stable enough to be evacuated back to the United States.

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[Coligny]

Shit... That's not good for my apocalyptic business plans...

[Russell]

Shit... That's not good for my apocalyptic business plans...

Fear not thou Frenchman!

World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl cautioned that health authorities "cannot start using untested drugs in the middle of an outbreak, for various reasons."

Doctors Without Borders similarly weighed in on the side of caution.

"It is important to keep in mind that a large-scale provision of treatments and vaccines that are in very early stages of development has a series of scientific and ethical implications," the organization said in a statement.

"As doctors, trying an untested drug on patients is a very difficult choice since our first priority is to do no harm, and we would not be sure that the experimental treatment would do more harm than good."

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[Coligny]

That would be awesome if the drug just delayed the symptoms while the carriers became contagious...
Typhoid Mary but bleeding from the anus !

Yay !

(It's funny, because that whole "don't start using untested drug during a outbreak" is the exact equivalent of "don't change safety rules and standards during a meltdown" that means that in Japan ebola might be soon classified as a stress related ailment...

[Takechanpoo]

Fujifilm's flu drug to save the world
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-0 ... dates.html