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Ebola Airport Screening Finding Few Suspected Cases in US

MEDSCAPE MEDICAL NEWS by Larry Hand                                                                        Dec. 9, 2014

Airport exit screening in West Africa and entry screening in the United States have identified few persons potentially infected with Ebola virus, according to an article published online December 9 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

 

 Number of travelers arriving from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone who were screened for Ebola at US airports, by state and county of destination (October 11 - November 10, 2014). Source: CDC

Of 80,000 travelers who have departed from West Africa since Ebola-specific screening began, 1993 people have been screened on arrival at one of five US airports. Of those, 86 passengers were referred to the CDC public health officers; only seven have shown symptoms and been referred for evaluation. None eventually wound up with an Ebola diagnosis.

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Fear, hope mark life inside Ebola center in Sierra Leone: Witness

 REUTERS     by Benjamin Black, MD                                                              Dec. 9, 2014

A British doctor's first-hand description of the challenges of working in a MSF clinic in Sierra Leone
Read full account.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/09/us-health-ebola-witness-idUSKBN0JN10G20141209

Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) health worker Benjamin Black is seen at an Ebola virus treatment centre in Bo December 9, 2014. credit: Reuters/Stringer

 

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High Risk: 100-Fold Ebola Rate for Health Workers in Sierra Leone

NBC NEWS --  by Maggie Fox                                                                                            Dec. 9, 2014

Health care workers have more than 100 times the risk of catching Ebola in Sierra Leone as the general public there does, according to a new report.

And it's not necessarily down to failed protective measures in hospitals. Health care workers form their own community, and when one gets sick or dies, he or she can infect fellow medics, the report finds.

The World Health Organization has been saying that health care workers such as doctors and nurses are at special risk of Ebola. It says 622 health-care workers have been infected and 346 of them have died in all the affected countries.

Dr. Peter Kilmarx of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who led an investigation into the high infection rate in Sierra Leone...said  "We think of health care worker infections as a failure of personal protective equipment.,"But there are so many different ways that they are exposed there."

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Ebola Infections Fewer Than Predicted by Disease Models

A few months ago the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that up to 1.4 million people in Liberia and Sierra Leone could become infected with Ebola by mid-January. In a recent address to the Senate, CDC director Tom Frieden said that worst-case scenario would not pan out.

That is partly because health care workers in the Ebola hot zone are engaged in a battle to contain the epidemic. It is also because of assumptions about human and viral behavior that are built into the mathematical models used to predict the spread of infectious diseases. Assumptions are inherent in these models. “You take islands of data from different places and build bridges of assumptions that link up all these islands,” says Martin Meltzer, senior health economist at the CDC. Meltzer’s model, which predicted the 1.4 million infections in Liberia and Sierra Leone, worked on the assumption that things would not improve. “Our forecasts are based on the idea that nothing will change,” he says.

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Ebola still spreading in western Sierra Leone, Guinea's forest: U.N

REUTERS    By Stephanie Nebehay                                                                                 Dec. 9, 2014
GENEVA --More foreign health workers are needed to help tackle the Ebola epidemic, which is spreading quickly in western Sierra Leone and deep in the forested interior of Guinea, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday.

A woman walks pass an Ebola virus awareness campaign poster in Monrovia, December 8, 2014. Credit: Reuters/James Giahyue

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 6,331 in the three worst hit countries, with Sierra Leone overtaking Liberia as the country with the highest number of cases, the World Health Organization says.

"We know the outbreak is still flaming strongly in western Sierra Leone and some parts of the interior of Guinea. We can't rest, we have to still push on," said David Nabarro, the U.N. Special Envoy on Ebola.

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Undiagnosed Acute Viral Febrile Illnesses, Sierra Leone

wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid

Schoepp RJ, Rossi CA, Khan SH, Goba A, Fair JN. Undiagnosed acute viral febrile illnesses, Sierra Leone. Emerg Infect Dis [Internet]. 2014 Jul [date cited]. http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2007.131265

DOI: 10.3201/eid2007.131265

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Undiagnosed Acute Viral Febrile Illnesses, Sierra Leone

Table of Contents – Volume 20, Number 7—July 2014

Abstract

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VIDEO - Council on Foreign Relations - Ebola Update: Assessment From Africa

Archived Video - Watch the meeting held on Tuesday, December 9, 2014, from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. (ET).

Speakers: Nancy A. Aossey, President and Chief Executive Officer, International Medical Corps

Laurie Garrett, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, Ebola: Story of an Outbreak

David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola, United Nations

Presider: Richard E. Besser, Chief Health and Medical Editor, ABC News

Experts recently returned from trips to West Africa with medical teams operating Ebola-treatment units there discuss the situation on the ground and developments in the international response to the crisis.

CLICK HERE - Council on Foreign Relations - Ebola Update: Assessment From Africa

CLICK HERE - YouTube - Council on Foreign Relations - Ebola Update: Assessment From Africa

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Ebola Still Spreading in Western Sierra Leone, Guinea's Forest - U.N.

         

A woman walks pass an Ebola virus awareness campaign poster in Monrovia, December 8, 2014. 
Credit: Reuters/James Giahyue

reuters.com - by Stephanie Nebehay - December 9, 2014

* UN envoy Nabarro focusing on two "troublesome areas"

* Ebola spreading in western Sierra Leone, forests of Guinea

* Foreign health workers and local communities key to response (adds details, quotes)

(Reuters) - More foreign health workers are needed to help tackle the Ebola epidemic, which is spreading quickly in western Sierra Leone and deep in the forested interior of Guinea, a senior U.N. official said on Tuesday.

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 6,331 in the three worst hit countries, with Sierra Leone overtaking Liberia as the country with the highest number of cases, the World Health Organization says.

"We know the outbreak is still flaming strongly in western Sierra Leone and some parts of the interior of Guinea. We can't rest, we have to still push on," said David Nabarro, the U.N. Special Envoy on Ebola.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Surviving Ebola

      

Decontee Davis: She won her battle with Ebola. Her 5-year-old son, though, paid a price. She didn’t want other kids to suffer the same way, so she embarked on a difficult new job.

washingtonpost.com

Decontee Davis, 23, works at a child-care center, where any of the 13 children could be coming down with Ebola.  All are from homes where parents or guardians have been taken away to treatment centers or died of Ebola, and now the youngsters must be monitored for 21 days to determine whether they are infected as well.

The job falls to a staff of 10, all survivors of Ebola like Davis, who watch them 24 hours a day.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Red Cross needs volunteers to help contain Ebola in West Africa

CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION                   Dec. 14, 2014

The Canadian Red Cross is looking for people to help with the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Chris Baert-Wilson, Atlantic director of community health for the Canadian Red Cross, says her organization is looking for more medical professionals from this region to head to West Africa to help contain the spread.  

The Red Cross is looking for 150 volunteers over the next six months. She said that would be enough to have 16 staff at any given time. Baert-Wilson says there are just 16 applicants so far.  

"We’re looking for folks with infection prevention and control [experience], … doctors, we’re looking for nurses to help out, and we’re looking for folks that can provide psycho-social support — so social workers, that style of professional, that are able to support the families and the patients that have Ebola," says Baert-Wilson.

Read complete report.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/red-cross-needs-volunteers-to-help-contain-ebola-in-west-africa-1.2864188

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