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  • ‘To stop Ebola, we must end the virus called fear’

    ‘To stop Ebola, we must end the virus called fear’

    Dr. Marc Siegel, a practising internist, joined FOX News Channel (FNC) as a contributor in 2008. In this piece on the international news medium’s website, Siegel says the fear of Ebola is a bigger problem, which should be given more attention if the disease is to be stopped

    The  Ebola virus has been infecting and killing people in Central Africa since at least 1976, and the current “worst Ebola epidemic in history” has been going on in West Africa since March.  But it is only in the past few weeks that a second deadly “virus” has emerged, as the news media has caught on to this story and has broadcast it around the world, infecting everyone with another contagious virus: fear.

    Don’t get me wrong; Ebola is a bad bug, and well worth being concerned about. This particular Zaire strain kills up to 90 percent of its human victims. It often fools the immune system of a host into not recognizing it, and many victims end up in kidney and liver failure without even a fight. On top of this, Ebola is difficult to recognize, appearing first like any other flu with fatigue, fever, headache, muscle aches. Then you can start to have vomiting and diarrhea, and caretakers and close contacts of afflicted patients can catch Ebola even as they try to help contain it.

    But fear and ignorance are spreading in West Africa along with Ebola, as natives mistrust the very humanitarian aid that is being brought in to help them. Physicians in the Ebola trenches are heroes, not sources of contagion, but not everyone sees them that way. Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, whose work in Sierra Leone against several viruses — including Ebola — is legendary, died this week of the dreaded virus. His work should be celebrated.

    But with this Ebola outbreak already killing close to 700 in West Africa, the best way to combat it is with solid science, and the biggest threat to this proven strategy is fear. Ebola isn’t spread by coughing and sneezing. Isolating sick patients and their contacts has worked in stopping previous Ebola outbreaks. The same kind of infection-control precautions are used that have also worked successfully with HIV/AIDS (gloves, gowns, masks).

    Unfortunately, when people are afraid, they take fewer infectious precautions, and spread more virus. This is why regional quarantines haven’t always worked historically.  It is probably prudent for Liberia to close most of its borders and to have Ebola testing centers at the ones that remain open, as long as this doesn’t spread panic. While it is also reasonable to issue travel advisories and screen patients for viral symptoms coming in and out of West Africa, and the CDC is wise to issue Level 2 travel precautions (avoid direct contact with Ebola patients), anything beyond this at this point would be counterproductive.

    It is very unlikely that someone will contract Ebola from casual contact on a plane. It is even more unlikely that if Ebola does appear in the U.S., that it will lead to a sustained outbreak here, because of our public health system. The challenge to provide supportive care while properly isolating patients is much greater in Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Guinea than it would be here.

    Living close together, being unaware of how viruses spread, and even burial rituals have helped to spread Ebola in West Africa. This epidemic will still likely be contained and not spread to other countries. If it does spread, it will likely not be sustained, in part because Ebola is so deadly it usually kills the host before he/she has a chance to spread it.

    Several vaccines and anti-viral drugs have showed promising results in animals, and human testing is under way, though no treatment or vaccine will be ready for market soon. In the meantime, the best treatment for both Ebola and the spreading fear of Ebola is to offer the world information and perspective, and for those afflicted in Africa — careful isolation.

    When it comes to a health scare, the news media has never been great at providing this kind of calm, rational perspective. The time to start is now.

  • Ebola vaccine trial in September

    Ebola vaccine trial in September

    The United States will launch an early-stage trial in September of an experimental vaccine against Ebola, the deadly viral disease that has killed 729 people in the largest outbreak in history.

    The National Institutes of Health has been developing an Ebola vaccine for several years that has had “encouraging results” in primates, says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci said he’s working with the Food and Drug Administration to fast track the vaccine into a phase 1 clinical trial this fall. This type of trial is the earliest study in humans and aims to make sure that drugs are safe and show some efficacy.

    Results from the study should be available by January, Fauci said. If the vaccine proves safe and effective, Fauci said he expects that it could be given to health workers in affected African countries sometime in 2015.

    “We are starting to discuss some deals with pharmaceutical companies to help scale it up, so on an emergency basis, it might be available in 2015 for health workers who are putting themselves at extreme risk,” Fauci said.

    Ebola, which has a fatality rate of up to 90%, has infected more than 1,300 people in West Africa, including a number of health workers, according to the World Health Organisation.

    There are currently no effective treatments or vaccines for Ebola, which causes fever and headache in early stages but can lead to hemorrhaging, liver failure and kidney failure in later stages. But scientists have been working on four or five preventive vaccines that appear effective, said Thomas Geisbert, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

    The only positive development to come from the epidemic is that it’s attracted long-needed attention from drug makers, Fauci said.

    “We have been working on our own Ebola vaccine, but we never could get any buy-in from the companies,” he said.

    For years, pharmaceutical companies have seen little potential for profit in Ebola, because outbreaks are unpredictable and typically small, Geisbert said.

    “It’s not like cancer or heart disease, or even a prevalent infectious disease like malaria,” he said.

    The Food and Drug Administration has made exceptions to its usually stringent rules for drug development when considering treatments for Ebola and other rare and lethal diseases, Geisbert said.

    Developing effective treatments is promising for Ebola. These include a man-made antibody treatment; a promising Canadian drug from Tekmira Pharmaceuticals shown to protect monkeys from Ebola; and a vaccine that can be used both to prevent infection and also treat it.

    “One of our goals is to start combining these treatments, like we do with AIDS medications,” Geisbert said.

    He said there are a number of obstacles to bringing these drugs to the clinic.

    “It’s a very fast-moving disease, and you often don’t have a lot of time to intervene,” Geisbert said. “If someone has full-blown Ebola hemorrhagic virus, there is no drug on the planet that is going to protect them. But in the monkey model, we do have drugs where, if you have an early stage of infection and an early stage of illness, some of them are pretty successful.”

    Developing effective treatments is growing more important by the day, as the West African outbreak grows. In the past, public health officials were able to get control of Ebola outbreaks by quarantining the small, remote towns and villages where they occurred, he said.

    Quarantining large populations in more densely populated cities, where Ebola is now occurring, is far more difficult, Geisbert said.

    The disease is popping up in so many places at once. That makes it harder to concentrate health experts and specialists in one area. “It’s spreading the experts who know how to manage these things pretty thin,” he said.

     

    •Culled from USA Today

     

  • Ebola: Anambra seals off hospital

    The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Josephat Akabuike, announced on Thursday that a hospital has been sealed off and its workers and patients quarantined due to Ebola disease scare.

    Briefing journalists in Awka, Akabuike said the measure followed information received by the government that a man whose body was brought back from Liberia at the weekend, might have died of the killer disease.

    He said that information available to the government indicated that the body was brought back from Liberia through Lagos and deposited in the mortuary at Nkwelle-Ezenaka in Oyi local government area of the state.

    “Part of the briefing is to tell you what we are doing to make sure we don’t allow the deadly virus to come into the state.

    “What actually called for this is that we have a report that a corpse was brought through Lagos and the deceased was said to have been taken from Liberia where of course you know there are cases of the disease.

    “The corpse was said to have been brought to Nigeria and deposited somewhere in Nkwelle-Ezunaka and the ministry was alerted and that is why we are taking all these measures,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the commissioner as saying at the briefing.

    The commissioner said that Governor Willie Obiano had already directed the police command in the state to cordon off the place until the necessary tests were carried out.

    He further said that Federal Government had also sent medical experts from the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, to Anambra to carry out the test at the hospital premises.

  • Ebola’s death toll rises to 729

    The death toll from an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa has risen to 729, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.

    57 deaths were reported between July 24 and 27 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Reuters quoted the global health body as saying on Thursday.

    The WHO also said Nigerian authorities had so far identified 59 people who had come into contact with a Liberia citizen who died in Lagos last week after travelling from his country via Togo and Ghana.

  • Sierra Leone declares Ebola emergency

    Sierra Leone’s president has declared a public health emergency to curb the deadly Ebola outbreak, the BBC reports.

    Ernest Bai Koroma said the epicentres of the outbreak in the east would be quarantined and asked the security forces to enforce the measures.

    The United Nations said more than 670 people in West Africa have died of Ebola since February – 224 of them in Sierra Leone.

    This includes Dr. Sheik Umar Khan who led Sierra Leone’s fight against the virus. His funeral is on Thursday.

    As part of the new measures to contain the viral haemorrhagic fever, travellers at airports will have wash their hand with disinfectant and their temperature checked, President Koroma said in a statement.

    The president also announced that he was cancelling a visit to Washington for the United States-Africa summit next week because of the crisis.

    His measures follow tough anti-Ebola policies introduced this week in neighbouring Liberia.

     

  • Ebola: Ogun puts health workers on red alert

    Ebola: Ogun puts health workers on red alert

    Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has put health officials in the border areas of the state on red alert to forestall the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

    He urged to doctors to stop the nationwide strike embarked upon by members of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) about a month ago.

    Amosun, who was speaking at the Annual General Meeting of NMA, Ogun State Chapter in Abeokuta yesterday, lamented the rate at which human lives were being lost due to the strike.

    “We are terribly exposed because we have numerous border towns in our state. All the health officials and other government agents in border areas have been put on red alert to work assiduously to curtail the infiltration of the deadly Ebola virus.

    “It is true that the environment is not the way our doctors want but I want to appeal to them to try as much as possible to avoid strike because their service is more of service to humanity.

    “I’m happy to know that this strike is not about your remuneration but clamour for facilities that will enhance your performance. Let’s endeavour to strike a balance on issues that brought about this strike for the sake of the lives we are losing daily nationwide,” he said.

  • Ebola: Airline wants flights’ suspension lifted

    The Director-General of ASKY Airlines, Mr. Yissehak Zewoldi, on Wednesday pleaded with the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to lift its suspension of the airline’s flight into Nigeria.

    Zewoldi told aviation correspondents in Lagos that the flight restriction was affecting passengers within the West African sub-region.

    It would be recalled that NCAA had on Monday announced the suspension of ASKY’s flight to Nigeria following the death of Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian who died of the Ebola virus in a Lagos hospital on Friday.

    The victim was one of the passengers in the airline’s flight to Nigeria on July 21.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the deceased was on his way to Calabar for an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) engagement.

    Zewoldi said the airline was taking measures to ensure that it did not in any way contribute to the spread of the virus.

    He said that he had written to the Director-General of NCAA on two occasions to explain that the airline had taken measures to ensure that it did not carry persons infected with Ebola virus on its flights.

    He said that ASKY was fully commitment to working closely with all authorities and organisations in the fight against the spread of the disease.

    According to him, ASKY is determined to keep its passengers and staff safe from Ebola.

     

  • Ebola kills Sierra Leone’s top doctor

    The doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record died from the virus on Tuesday, the country’s chief medical officer said.

    The death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients, follows those of dozens of local health workers and the infection of two American medics in neighbouring Liberia.

    The development highlighted the dangers faced by staff trying to halt the disease’s spread across West Africa, Reuters reports.

    Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation.

    The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding. The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it.

    The 39-year-old Khan, hailed as a “national hero” by the Health Ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.

    He died less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and shortly before President Ernest Bai Koroma arrived to visit his treatment centre in the northeastern town of Kailahun.

    “It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral haemorrhagic fevers,” said the chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo.

  • Ebola virus a threat to UK – Hammond

    The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, is a threat to the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC.

    He said he would chair an emergency Cobra meeting on the issue later.

    Mr. Hammond said no Britons had been affected so far and there were no cases in the UK, but the government was viewing the outbreak very seriously.

    Earlier this month Public Health England issued an alert to UK doctors to be aware of Ebola’s symptoms.

    Several West African airlines have now stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid concerns about the outbreak.

    It comes after an infected Liberian man was found to have travelled through a major Nigerian airport last week.

    Mr. Hammond told BBC News the government was “absolutely focused” on tackling the threat posed by the Ebola virus, including looking at “whether there are precautions we need to take – either in the UK or to protect our nationals in the area abroad.”

    He went on: “At the moment we don’t think any British nationals [abroad] are affected and we are fairly confident there are no cases in the UK.

    “But it is a threat, it is something we need to respond to and we will be doing so through the Cobra mechanism.”

    The Department of Health said a man had been tested for Ebola in Birmingham but tests for the virus proved negative.

     

  • My man, by wife of Ebola victim who died in Lagos

    My man, by wife of Ebola victim who died in Lagos

    Hospital explains how it handled Sawyer’s case

    Airline kicks against ban

    MORE facts emerged yesterday on the identity of the Ebola virus victim whose death last week in Lagos set off a chain of reactions.

    Patrick Sawyer had one stop to make before heading home to Minnesota, United States, to celebrate his daughters’ birthdays: a conference Calabar, Cross River State.

    But when he landed in Lagos, Sawyer, 40, collapsed getting off the plane. He had been infected with Ebola in Liberia, where he worked as a top government official in the Liberian Ministry of Finance.

    Sawyer was isolated at a Lagos hospital on July 20. He died five days later.

    Sawyer’s wife Decontee Sawyer, lives in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, with the couple’s three young daughters, five-year-old Eva, four-year-old Mia, and Bella, who is one. The Sawyers are naturalized citizens; their daughters were born in the United States.

    “He was so proud when he became a U.S. citizen,” Decontee told CNN. “He voted for first time in the last U.S. presidential election. He lived in the U.S. for many years, and wanted that for Liberia — a better democracy.”

    Sawyer is the first American to die in what health officials are calling the “deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.” His death has sparked concerns that the virus could potentially spread to the United States.

    “People weren’t really taking it [Ebola] seriously until it hit Patrick,” Decontee said. “People are ready to take action.”

    His wife, 34, is said to be devastated at the thought of how close Sawyer came to returning home to the U.S. for his daughters’ birthdays carrying the dreaded virus.

    “It’s a global problem because Patrick could’ve easily come home with Ebola,” Decontee said to KSTP. “Easy. Easy. It’s close, it’s at our front door. It knocked down my front door.”

    The Sawyer family is working with their church community to start “Concerned Liberians against Ebola,” Decontee said. Their goal is to raise $500,000 to help two international organizations: Samaritan’s Purse and Global Health Ministry.

    The risk of travellers contracting Ebola is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions, such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva, experts say.

    Ebola can’t be spread like flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air.

    According to the Mail Online, witnesses said Sawyer was vomiting and had diarrhea aboard at least one of his flights with some 50 other passengers aboard.

    Ebola can be contracted from traces of faeces or vomit, experts say.

    Sawyer was immediately quarantined upon arrival in Lagos and Nigerian authorities say his fellow travellers were advised of Ebola’s symptoms and then were allowed to leave.

    Decontee learned Sawyer was sick with Ebola on July 24 and then on July 25 she was told her husband of six years had passed away from the virus.

    Liberia has suspended all football activities in an effort to control the spread of the deadly virus.

    There was a risk of infection because football is a contact sport, the football association said.

    The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new United Nations (UN) figures.

    A major regional airliner, Asky, said it had halted flights to the Liberian and Sierra Leonean capitals because of growing concerns about the virus. It has been banned from flying into Nigeria.

    It is the second airline company to take such a decision, following the deadliest Ebola outbreak.

    Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.