The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ebola

  • Ebola: Sierra Lone cleared to host matches

    Ebola: Sierra Lone cleared to host matches

    Sierra Leone can again host international matches now that the country is free of Ebola.

    The Confederation of African Football had banned Sierra Leone from hosting matches following the recommendations of the World Health Organisation.

    But the ban, which took effect in August 2014, has now been lifted following the end of the Ebola epidemic in the West African country, the BBC reports.

    CAF told the Sierra Leone Football Association in a letter dated December 6.

    Guinea and Liberia were also banned from hosting matches because of the threat of Ebola in their countries.

    While Liberia has been given the go-ahead to resume internationals, Guinea had not yet been cleared Ebola-free by the WHO and so the CAF suspension remains in place.

    Guinea currently host games in Mali and Morocco, while Sierra Leone fulfilled home 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures against Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast at the grounds of their opponents and collected only one point.

    Ebola in Sierra Leone killed almost 4,000 people before the nation was declared free of transmission last month.

  • Liberia begins new Ebola countdown

    Liberia begins new Ebola countdown

    Liberia on Friday commenced a new countdown to declaring itself of Ebola free for a third time, health officials said.

    The countdown comes after the last two known Ebola cases were released from hospital on Thursday.

    In recent months, Liberia had been the only country in West Africa with known cases as neighboring Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free in November while Guinea’s last known case recovered two weeks ago.

    “There are no cases in the ETUs (Ebola Treatment Units) in the entire Republic of Liberia,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, Head of Liberia’s Ebola response, adding that Ebola safety procedures remained in place.

    The two patients released from the Paynesville ETU are the father and younger brother of the presumed index case, a 15-year-old boy named Nathan Gbotoe from a suburb of the capital Monrovia who died from the disease late November.

    However, new cases could still emerge in Liberia since there are 165 contacts still under quarantine, of which more than 30 are deemed high risk, health officials told newsmen.

    Nyenswah say the contacts under surveillance have completed 14 of their obligatory 21-day monitoring – a period that corresponds with the typical incubation period of the virus.

    “No need to cancel your plane ticket when you are planning to come to Liberia, continue to come here the place is safe,” Nyenswah told newsmen.

    Liberian medical workers are still grappling to explain how Ebola re-emerged in Liberia more than two months after it was declared free of the virus by the World Health Organisation.

    Resurgent cases in Liberia, possibly transmitted sexually by survivors, had cast doubt on the current policy of labeling a country Ebola-free after 42 days.

     

  • Ebola kills one in Liberia

    Ebola kills one in Liberia

    A 15-year-old boy has died of Ebola in Liberia, the first such fatality for months in a country declared free of the disease in September, chief medical officer, Francis Kateh, said on Tuesday.

    “Nathan Gbotoe tested positive last week and died late on Monday in hospital in Paynesville near the capital, where his father and brother are also being treated for Ebola, officials told Reuters.

     

  • Liberia monitors 153 Ebola contacts, virus re-emerges

    Liberia has placed 153 people under surveillance as it seeks to control a new Ebola outbreak in the capital more than two months after the country was declared free of the virus, health officials said.

    Three Ebola cases emerged in Liberia on Friday. The first of the new patients was a 15-year-old boy called Nathan Gbotoe from Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia. Two other family members have since been confirmed as positive and they are all hospitalised.

    “We have three confirmed cases and have listed 153 contacts, and we have labelled them as high, medium and low in terms of the risk,” Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Francis Kateh ,told Reuters late on Saturday.

    The West African country has suffered the highest death toll in the worst known Ebola outbreak in history, losing more than 4,800 people. It has twice been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization, once in May and again on September 3, only for new cases to emerge.

     

  • New Ebola case hits Liberia

    New Ebola case hits Liberia

    A new case of Ebola emerged in Liberia on Friday in a setback for the country declared free of the disease on September 3 and for the region, which is struggling to end an epidemic that has killed around 11,300 people.

    The patient is a 10-year-old boy who lived with his parents and three siblings in Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia, the Minister of Health, Bernice Dahn, said.

    All six family members, as well as other high risk contacts, were in care at an Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, Dahn said.

    “The hospital is currently decontaminating the unit. All of the healthcare workers who came in contact with the patient have been notified,” Reuters quoted the minister as saying at a news conference.

    “We know how Ebola spreads and we know to stop Ebola but we must remain vigilant and work together,” she said.

    Bruce Aylward, who leads the Ebola response for the World Health Organisation, said the patient had no history of contact with an Ebola survivor or victim.

    “The family obviously is at particular risk and are being investigated right now because two of the siblings have been unwell over the last two days so they are also being investigated,” he told a news conference in Geneva.

    Liberia has seen more than 10,600 cases of the disease and 4,808 Ebola deaths since it was first announced in March 2014, according to WHO figures.

  • Liberia records new Ebola case

    Liberia records new Ebola case

    Liberian Health Minister, Bernice Dahn said on Friday, a new case of Ebola has emerged, a setback for the country declared free of the disease on September 3.

    Dahn said that it was also a setback for the region, which was struggling to end an epidemic that had killed around 11,300 people.

    The patient is a 10 year old boy who lived with his parents and three siblings in Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia, she said.

    All six family members, as well as other high risk contacts, were in care at an Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, Dahn added.

    She also said that the hospital was currently decontaminating the unit; all of the healthcare workers who came in contact with the patient had also been notified.

    “We know how Ebola spreads and we know how to stop Ebola but we must remain vigilant and work together,” she said.

    Liberia has seen more than 10,600 cases of the disease and 4,808 Ebola deaths since it was first announced in March, 2014, according to WHO figures.

    The virus has killed about 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but Sierra Leone was declared free of the virus on Nov. 7 and Guinea has begun its countdown to the end of the virus.

     

  • Guinea’s last Ebola patient released from care centre

    Guinea’s last Ebola patient released from care centre

    The last known Ebola patient in Guinea has recovered and been released from a treatment centre in the capital, Conakry, health officials say.

    A spokesman for Guinea’s Ebola co-ordination unit said two tests on the patient – a baby – had been negative.

    Guinea will be declared officially free of Ebola if no new cases are reported in the next six weeks, the BBC reports.

    The epidemic, which began in Guinea, has killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa.

    “The last confirmed case of Ebola has been released from a treatment centre,” said Fode Tass Sylla of the Ebola co-ordination unit.

    “We did two tests after his treatment and they came back negative.”

    The 19-day-old baby was born in the Nongo Ebola treatment centre but his infected mother did not survive, Reuters reported.

    Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization earlier this month after 42 days without a single declared case.

    Liberia was declared free of the disease in September.

    The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014.

  • Ebola: Guinea releases last 68 people from quarantine

    Ebola: Guinea releases last 68 people from quarantine

    The final 68 people who had been in contact with an Ebola patient were released from quarantine on Saturday, said a senior health official, raising hopes of an end to the disease in the last West African country with confirmed cases.

    The world’s worst Ebola epidemic, which hopped borders to kill more than 11,300 people and devastate already fragile West African economies, has already been declared over in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

    But Guinea, where the outbreak began, has had a more difficult time eradicating the disease, Reuters reported.

    Dr. Abdourahmane Bathily, head of the Ebola centre in Forecariah in western Guinea, said the 68 contacts had emerged from quarantine at midnight on Saturday morning.

    “There are no longer any people who had contact with a person infected by the Ebola virus,” Bathily said.

    He added that the last confirmed Ebola case was a baby in isolation, who should be released from a treatment centre next week, allowing for the West African nation to begin its own countdown clock.

     

  • From Ebola survivor to motherhood

    From Ebola survivor to motherhood

    OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA and WALE ADEPOJU write on how Ebola survivor Dr Ada Igonoh weathered the storm to become a mother.

    Female Ebola survivors rarely get pregnant and when they do, many do not carry it to term. So far, only two women in Africa are known to have given birth after recovering from Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever (EHF). They are Sierra Leone’s first Ebola survivor Victoria Yillia and Nigeria’s Dr Ada Igonoh, who was delivered of a baby girl in the United States (US) two weeks ago.

    Mrs  Igonoh of the First Consultant Medical Centre (FCMC), Lagos, became infected with Ebola last year during the treatment of the index case, Liberian Patrick Sawyer, who died about two weeks after coming down with the deadly virus. The birth of Igonoh’s baby is being celebrated because it is a rare medical feat. Reason: Expectant mothers with active Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and expectant mothers who survive EVD without pregnancy loss, according to World Health Organisation (WHO), may transmit the virus during delivery and/or management of obstetric complications.

    Although WHO claries that there is no evidence to show that women who survive (EVD) and subsequently become pregnant pose a risk for EVD transmission.

    It was for the fear of Mrs Igonoh’s and her baby’s health that extreme precautions were taken to manage her pregnancy.

    FCMC Chief Medical Director (CMD) Dr Benjamin Ohiaeri said being the first Post- Ebola survivor to become pregnant in Nigeria, “we could not afford to take chances with her while pregnant and at delivery. This is because when you survive Ebola it is difficult to get pregnant, and if pregnant, it is difficult to carry the pregnancy, and much difficult to deliver the pregnancy. Ada carried the pregnancy well. She made us proud, as a nation”. Statistics show that such fears may not be misplaced.

    Fifteen (14 percent) of 105 women with Ebola haemorrhagic fever hospitalised in the isolation unit of the Kikwit General Hospital in Democratic Republic of  Congo were pregnant. In 10 women (66 percent), the pregnancy ended with an abortion. In three of them, curettage was performed, and they received blood transfusion from an apparently healthy person. Curettage is to remove tissue by scraping or scooping. One woman was prematurely delivered of a stillbirth. Four expectant mothers died during the third trimester of their pregnancy. The women bled severely. Only one survived; she had curettage because of an incomplete abortion after eight months of amenorrhea. The mortality rate of expectant mothers with Ebola Haemorrhagic fever (95.5 percent) was slightly but not significantly higher than the overall mortality observed during the Ebola epidemic in Kikwit (77 percent; 245/316 infected persons).

    Dr Ohiaeri said: “There are so many tests she undergone that couldn’t have been done in the country. We hypothetically assumed so many things and that is how we work as medics, so we could not afford her some chances. She is a first of First. Best decision was the America. Dr. Igonoh is the only female medical doctor to have survived the deadly disease and gotten pregnant. Since her conception, she has been placed under medical surveillance to ensure that her child is Ebola-Free. The baby, upon birth, has been certified Ebola-free. The baby girl weighs Nine pounds One ounce. Everything about the baby is normal because all tests carried out on it came back negative. Vanderbelt University Medical Centre did the tests.”

    According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) there is no evidence that women who become pregnant after recovery from EVD are at risk of EVD transmission.  But it recommends Standard obstetric infection prevention and control (IPC) precautions that should be used when exposure to bodily fluids is possible during childbirth and/or management of complications.

    Yillia, the first survivor to have a child, lost 21 relatives to Ebola. She gave birth to a healthy 6lb, 3oz (2.8kg) baby boy with no complications.

    EVD in pregnancy is associated with a high rate of obstetric complications and poor maternal and perinatal outcomes, including spontaneous abortion, prelabour rupture of membranes, preterm labour/preterm birth, antepartum and postpartum haemorrhage, intrauterine fetal death, stillbirth, maternal death and neonatal death. Although rare, some pregnant women with EVD have recovered without loss of pregnancy. Evidence has shown that intrauterine contents remain PCR positive for Ebola virus RNA. There are no reports of survival beyond the neonatal period.

    WHO has Guidance on the clinical management of pregnant women with EVD it has as well a document that provides guidance for the screening, triage, and application of infection prevention and control (IPC) during pregnancy and childbirth care in the context of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD), but it maintains that the diagnosis of EVD during pregnancy can be challenging due to overlapping symptoms such as nausea and fatigue, and potentially atypical presentation such as delayed onset of fever. Rigorous screening for EVD exposure during pregnancy is essential in areas of Ebola virus transmission. Ebola IPC (infection prevention and control (IPC)) precautions must be stringently applied when providing obstetric care to pregnant women and newborns that are known or suspected to be at risk of EVD transmission.

    Dr Ohiaeri said the Association of Nigerian Physicians in America (ANPA) facilitated Dr Igonoh’s transfer to the US and the delivery was done by Dr Julius Kpaduwa, an Obstetician-Gynaecologist in El monte, California, while Dr Stella Kpaduwa, a paediatrician attended to the baby. “It is a feat for Nigeria as a nation that Ada was delivered by Nigerian-Americans. Many stakeholders were in the delivery room with her-WHO team, CDC team, Global Affairs team, and US Government representatives, the CEO of the hospital where she delivered.

    The husband, Mr Godwin Igonoh said mother and child are not expected back in the country soon as, “there is need for the duo to bond and it is satisfactory to the stakeholders to allow them come back. Once they arrive, there will be celebration and all will be invited.”

    WHO declared Nigeria Ebola-free on October 20, 2014. The organisation said there had been 28,607 cases of EVD and 11,314 deaths as at November 1, this year. It said a year ago, the West African Ebola outbreak was generating so many new cases, and spread to other countries that the world was terrified. Many feared that the Ebola virus was the pathogen that would overwhelm humanity.

    In an abstract published by  the Infectious Diseases Society of America during the Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever (EHF) epidemic in Kikwit, only a small number of women were pregnant, which contrasts with the epidemic in the neighbouring Yambuku, DRC, where 82 (46per cent) of 177 infected women were. Of the 202 EHF patients hospitalised at the Kikwit General Hospital, 105 were women, and 15 (14percent) of them were or had been pregnant during their illness. In 10 women (67percent), the pregnancy ended with an abortion. In three of them a curettage was done

    Spontaneous abortion is frequent in pregnant women with EHF. A high frequency of abortion has also been observed during infection with other hemorrhagic fevers, such as Lassa fever.  During the epidemic in Yambuku in 1976, 19 abortions (23%) among 82 pregnant women with EHF were reported.

    There are several factors that may explain the high incidence of abortions: pyrexia, intravascular coagulopathy, and EBO infection in fetuses of EBO-infected women. In Yambuku, a large number of pregnant women became infected with EBO because they had received vitamin injections with contaminated needles and syringes. Injections played only a minor role or no role at all in the Kikwit epidemic.

    Several infectious diseases, such as malaria, hepatitis, varicella zoster, polio, tuberculosis, and Lassa fever, have been reported to be more severe in pregnant than non pregnant women. Results for the small series of EBO-infected pregnant women in the current study suggest that EBO may also be more severe in pregnant women. More EBO-infected pregnant women presented with serious complications, such as hemorrhagic manifestations and neurologic complications, than did other EBO patients.

    A clinical diagnosis of hemorrhagic fever in a pregnant woman is complicated because pregnant women may bleed for other reasons, such as abortion unrelated to EHF or a placenta previa. During an EBO epidemic, every pregnant woman with genital bleeding should be considered as a suspected case of EHF.

    Pregnant women with EHF may present with severe genital bleeding and may need a blood transfusion or curettage (or both). Therefore, health care workers caring for these women have a particularly high risk of acquiring EHF if they do not apply barrier nursing techniques. This includes wearing double gloves, a plastic or rubber apron over a long sleeve gown, a mask, and a full face protector (if available) or protective glasses for personal protection. Moreover, linens, instruments, bedding, and floors that have been soiled with blood or other body fluids should be disinfected with sodium hypochlorite. The application of universal precautions and barrier nursing techniques is not only of particular importance in maternity units in Africa to protect health care workers against EBO infection but also against other infections that are transmissible by blood, such as HIV and hepatitis.

    Now, one year later that terror has been replaced by confidence that strong leadership, adaptation of the response to cultures and environments and innovation have turned the tide. Liberia has interrupted transmission and Sierra Leone is close to achieving that milestone. Guinea is still recording cases but in low numbers.

    At her address to the Regional Committee for Europe, Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, says the Ebola outbreak is not yet over, “but we are very close. We are in a phase where we can track the last chains of transmission, and break them. To get to this phase, WHO deployed more than 1000 staff to 68 field sites in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

    Due to the Ebola outbreak, many countries closed their borders. But as of now, the following travel notices have been updated: Ebola in Sierra Leone (downgraded to Level 2, Alert, Practice enhanced precautions), Ebola in Guinea (updated to reflect change to Sierra Leone notice and Ebola in Liberia (updated to reflect change to Sierra Leone notice).

  • Sierra Leone marks end of Ebola

    Sierra Leone marks end of Ebola

    Residents of Sierra Leone’s capital held a candlelit vigil and celebrations to mark the end of an Ebola epidemic that has killed almost 4,000 people including more than 220 health workers since it began last year.

    Following 42 days with no new cases, the West African nation’s epidemic was declared over on Saturday at a ceremony attended by President Ernest Bai Koroma and World Health Organization representative, Anders Nordstrom, Reuters reported.

    Thousands of people gathered overnight around the Cotton Tree, a massive tree in the centre of Freetown, for a candlelit vigil organised by women’s groups to pay tribute to health workers who lost their lives.

    “They died so we could live,” university student Fatmata said with tears in her eyes. Many of the health workers who died were infected due to inadequate protective equipment and training.

    The country’s first confirmed Ebola survivor, Victoria Yillia, told the crowd she was “happy that this disease which almost killed me has finally ended.”

    She appealed to authorities not to forget survivors, many of whom have faced social stigma and persistent health problems.

    Elsewhere in the city, residents celebrated the end of the epidemic, which forced schools to close, overwhelmed healthcare systems and hurt the local economy.

    “We’re happy. I feel free again after a period of bondage in the hands of Ebola,” said trader Joseph Katta as he clutched a pint of beer at a pub in the suburb of Lumley.

    Ebola has killed more than 11,300 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea since the epidemic was announced in March 2014 and about 28,500 were infected, according to WHO data. Sierra Leone’s death toll was 3,955 people.