fisheye said:
A few headlines on Ebola in the news.
CDC Getting Dozens Of Calls ‘About People Who Are Ill After Traveling In Africa’
_http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/cdc-getting-dozens-calls-people-ill-traveling-africa/
Monday August 11, 2014
Should we be alarmed that the CDC has received “several dozen calls” from hospitals around the country “about people who are ill after traveling in Africa”? As you will read about below, a lot more Ebola testing has been going on around the nation than we have been hearing about in the mainstream media.
I can understand the need to keep people calm, but don’t we have a right to know what is really going on? And the media has also been very quiet about the fact that Ebola is now potentially spreading to even more countries. As you will read about below, a Liberian man just died from Ebola in Morocco, and a man that traveled to Saudi Arabia from Sierra Leone on Sunday night is being tested for Ebola after exhibiting “symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever”. Top officials in the U.S. keep assuring us that everything is going to be just fine, but the truth is that this is a crisis that is beginning to spiral out of control. On Tuesday, the CDC told Time Magazine that it had received dozens of calls from all over the United States about people that had gotten sick after traveling to Africa…
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told TIME on Tuesday that it’s received several dozen calls from states and hospitals about people who are ill after traveling in Africa. “We’ve triaged those calls and about half-dozen or so resulted in specimen coming to CDC for testing and all have been negative for Ebola,” CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said, adding that the agency is expecting still more calls to come in.
Let’s certainly hope that there is nothing to be concerned about in any of those calls. As I pointed out yesterday, the consequences of having a major Ebola outbreak in the United States could potentially be absolutely catastrophic. Meanwhile, there is a case in Saudi Arabia that has health officials over there extremely concerned. A man that traveled to the country on Sunday night is being tested for the virus after showing symptoms of “viral hemorrhagic fever”…
Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it is testing a man for the Ebola virus after he showed symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever following a recent trip to Sierra Leone. The Health Ministry said the symptoms appeared in the 40-year-old Saudi man at a hospital in the western city of Jiddah. He is in critical condition and being treated in a unit with advanced isolation and infection-control capabilities. Different types of viral hemorrhagic fevers have been found in the kingdom, but no case of Ebola has ever been detected there, according to the ministry.
In addition, it is being reported by international media sources that a Liberian has died of the Ebola virus in Morocco. If that is true, that is extremely troubling. That would mean that we now have confirmed Ebola cases in five different countries. And remember, the Ebola virus can have an incubation period of up to three weeks, and Ebola victims can “look quite fit and healthy and can be walking around until shortly before their deaths“. Because of this, hospitals across America are being extremely cautions right now. The following is from a recent NPR report…
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If you show up at a hospital emergency department with a high fever and you just happen to have been traveling in Africa, don’t be surprised if you get a lot of attention. Hospitals are on the lookout for people with symptoms such as a high fever, vomiting and diarrhea who had been traveling in parts of West Africa affected by Ebola, following instructions from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And there have been some high profile cases that have gotten a lot of attention in recent days. The woman that was being tested for Ebola in Ohio got a lot of media attention, but it turns out that she does not have the disease. We are still waiting to hear about the man that was admitted to Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Officials say that he “probably does not have Ebola“, but the test results have not been released yet. In addition, Paul Joseph Watson has pointed out that CNN’s Sanjay Gupta has publicly revealed that there have actually been “about half a dozen patients” that have been tested for the virus in recent days…
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During a segment concerning the admission of a potential Ebola victim at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta revealed that there have been at least six cases at the hospital which prompted doctors to test for Ebola but that the details were not divulged publicly. “There have been about a half a dozen patients who have had their blood tested because of concern, those particular patients their stories were not made public,” said Gupta, adding, “I’m not sure if that’s because of heightened concern by the hospital or what that means exactly.”
What else is going on around the nation that we have not heard about? Like I keep saying, let us hope and pray that Ebola does not start spreading here, because it can rapidly become a nightmare. Over in Africa, nearly 900 people have already died, but one doctor told CBS News that the true number is actually significantly higher because “many cases are going unreported”…
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Already, the World Health Organization says 887 people have died, but a top doctor working at the heart of the outbreak in West Africa says many cases are going unreported. The senior doctor, who works for a leading medical organization in Liberia, explained to CBS News’ Debora Patta that what has helped set this outbreak apart from previous ones is the virus’ spread in urban areas. One of the epicenters of the disease is the Liberian capital of Monrovia, home to about a million people, or almost a quarter of the country’s population. The doctor, who spoke to CBS News on condition of confidentiality, said the disease is spinning out of control in Africa partly because it is extremely difficult to contain it in a sprawling, congested city center.
And it certainly does not help that infected bodies are being dumped into the streets over in Liberia. If that continues to happen, this epidemic could very rapidly turn into a raging inferno over there. There have been health scares in the past, but this one is very different. If you get Ebola, you are probably going to die. And right now the number of Ebola cases is growing at an exponential rate. If this outbreak is not brought under control soon, we could be facing the worst health crisis that we have seen in any of our lifetimes.
Missionaries who had contact with Ebola to be quarantined in Charlotte
_http://www.thestate.com/2014/08/10/3612302/missionaries-who-had-contact-with.html?sp=/99/132/
Sunday August 10, 2014
CHARLOTTE, NC — Missionaries returning from Liberia who have been in direct contact with the Ebola virus but who are not sick are heading to Charlotte and will be quarantined once they arrive, health officials said Sunday.
Dr. Stephen Keener, medical director of the Mecklenburg County Health Department, declined to specify how many missionaries will be quarantined, when they’ll arrive or how they’ll travel from Africa, citing the need for privacy. He also did not specify whether the missionaries are from Charlotte.
“It’s very important to hear and understand that … none of the returning missionaries are ill, none of them have the Ebola virus disease,” Keener said at a press conference. Those affected with Ebola are not infectious until they are symptomatic, health officials have said.
In a statement Sunday, Charlotte Douglas International Airport officials said they are “fully cooperating with state and local officials on the return of volunteers, staff and their families from West African countries currently affected by an Ebola outbreak.”
“The arrival will occur in an undisclosed, nonpublic area in order to ensure the safe return and privacy of the passengers,” the statement said. “The arrival is expected to have no impact (on) airport operations.”
SIM USA, based in Charlotte, is an international mission group that spreads the Gospel and helps the needy in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.
One of its missionaries, Nancy Writebol of Charlotte, became the second American stricken with Ebola while serving in Liberia. She was transferred to Emory University Hospital last Tuesday while her husband, David, remains in Liberia until his health condition is cleared.
Two other missionaries, along with their six children, arrived in Charlotte from Liberia on Aug. 3, SIM said. They remain on the SIM campus in an area that is separate from ongoing operations.
Keener said the missionaries returning differ from those eight who returned last week because last week’s group didn’t have any defined contact with people affected by the Ebola virus.
Those missionaries who returned last week were asked to remain available to go the full 21 days of quarantine in the interest of public safety. “They were not put under an official quarantine,” Bruce Johnson, SIM USA’s president, said.
Quarantine is a tool used to protect the public from the possible spread of a disease. During a quarantine, persons who have been exposed to a communicable disease, but who are not themselves ill, are limited in their movement and contact with others.
“They’re kept at home or in another situation that is controlled so they do not contact other people,” Keener said.
In the case of Ebola, exposure would mean contact with blood, saliva, vomit or other bodily fluids as well as contact with instruments that may be used, such as needles.
Those missionaries who have not been exposed by that definition, however, are “free to travel wherever they want,” Keener said.
“The definition we’re using is a very broad one, just to ensure out of a sense of overcaution that we wouldn’t be letting anything slip through the cracks,” Keener said.
He said because these missionaries are not sick or an immediate threat to public health, the organization is not disclosing any more information about them.
“What’s important, I think, is No. 1, the individuals aren’t sick. So if you’re not sick, then there’s no reason to get on the media and talk about you personally and what you’re doing and not doing because it doesn’t matter,” he said.
He added that the local and state health departments are going above what’s required of them to ensure the public’s safety and “to ensure that these folks are going to remain well and that there’s no opportunity for anybody else to become exposed or sick.”
When pressed for a ballpark figure on how many missionaries are returning from Liberia, Palmer Holt – the president of InChrist Communications who was speaking on behalf of SIM USA – said the organization is not releasing additional information. He said more may be announced in the coming days.
Quarintines used before
Keener said the county has used quarantines in the past, including for SARS in 2003 and the measles in recent years.
The quarantine period depends on the longest known incubation period of the disease in question. For Ebola, that’s 21 days.
“(When the) possibility of them developing the disease has passed, quarantine is lifted,” said Keener, noting that the quarantine for the missionaries began in Liberia with their last contact with the Ebola virus.
Should one of the patients start showing symptoms of the virus, health officials plan to consult with experts to determine whether further evaluation is needed, said Keener.
He added that symptoms of the virus can mimic what one would see in the flu or other types of viral diseases.
In the event that someone shows signs of Ebola, “all the necessary precautions will be taken at (a) hospital. The hospital will use the normal isolation procedures to ensure the safety of the staff and public.”
