US nurses voice Ebola concerns

Several dozen nurses at a Washington hospital demonstrated Wednesday outside the White House, saying they are woefully ill-prepared to handle an Ebola case.

They were among thousands of health care workers taking part in protests in the United States and overseas amid fears the Ebola epidemic might spread beyond West Africa.

"Ebola is just one plane ride away," said emergency room nurse Kelly Fields of Providence Hospital in Washington, where unionized nurse staff are negotiating their first collective agreement with management.

In blue scrubs and red union T-shirts, the nurses demanded an ample supply of full-dress protective suits as well as the training to use them.

"It's a major concern for us... It only takes one person to come to our emergency room and from there we're really not sure what to do," said intensive care nurse Aster Goitom.

Two nurses are among the nine confirmed Ebola cases that have been treated in the United States. Both women had helped to care for a Liberian man who died of the virus in a Texas hospital.

In a statement, Providence Hospital, which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, said it was prepared to identify and treat patients with highly communicable diseases, including Ebola.

National Nurses United, the biggest nurses' union in the United States, said it expected 100,000 nurses in 15 states to join what it called Global Ebola Awareness Day protests.

Similar demonstrations were scheduled to take place Wednesday in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Philippines and Spain, it said in a statement.

The United States has more than 2.7 million registered nurses, according to the Kaiser Foundation, a national health policy think tank.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Two US states order tough Ebola quarantine rules

NEW YORK - New York and New Jersey on Friday ordered a mandatory quarantine for medics who treated victims of the disease in West Africa, after the deadly virus spread to America's largest city.

The new measures were ordered by state governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie the day after an American doctor tested positive for Ebola one week after returning from working in hard-hit Guinea.

Craig Spencer, 33, was in stable condition in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center on Friday as he underwent treatment for the illness, which has killed nearly 4,900 people -- most of them in West Africa.

The New York case revived fears about the possible spread of the virus in US cities, but a glimmer of hope came with the news that two Texas nurses infected while treating a Liberian man are now free of the virus.

In Manhattan, Cuomo and Christie announced additional screening protocols at JFK and Newark international airports at a joint press conference.

Steps include mandatory quarantine for up to 21 days of any individual who has had direct contact with an Ebola patient while in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, including medics who treated Ebola patients.

Additionally, anyone who has travelled to the affected regions but not had direct contact with an Ebola patient will be actively monitored by public health officials and quarantined if necessary.

Christie said that a health care worker who arrived at Newark with a recent history of treating patients with Ebola in West Africa, but who had no symptoms, had been placed in quarantine.

Spencer was rushed to the hospital with fever and gastrointestinal symptoms on Thursday, a week after returning from a stint in West Africa with the charity group Doctors Without Borders.

His live-in fiancee and two of his close friends are in quarantine but healthy, officials said.

- 'No cause for alarm' -

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cuomo and other officials sought to allay fears that Spencer had put New Yorkers at risk by using the subway, going bowling and eating out before falling ill.

"There is no cause for alarm," de Blasio said. "New Yorkers need to understand the situation is being handled and handled well."

"We are fully prepared to handle Ebola. Our medical experts here in the city have been studying this disease intensively and working closely with our federal partners," de Blasio said.

New York, one of the largest points of entry to the United States, had been braced for months for a possible Ebola case.

The area's two largest international airports, JFK and Newark, this month introduced health checks for passengers travelling from West Africa, and four city hospitals are equipped to cope with Ebola patients.

Spencer, who returned home through JFK on October 17, is the first case diagnosed in the United States outside Texas.

In Dallas, two nurses contracted the virus after treating a Liberian patient who later died of Ebola.

-Obama hug for cured Ebola nurse-

The nurses were declared cured on Friday, and 26-year-old Nina Pham was healthy enough to leave hospital and meet President Barack Obama for a hug at the White House before returning home.

Obama has been vocal in calling on Americans not to give in to fear or hysteria, stressing that Ebola does not spread easily and that the United States is well-equipped to deal with any new cases.

Pham smiled and appeared healthy, wearing a turquoise shirt and dark business suit at a news conference outside the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

"I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," she said, expressing her gratitude for those who prayed for her and cared for her while she was sick.

Pham was the first US health care worker to be infected with Ebola while working inside the United States, catching the disease from Thomas Eric Duncan, who was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28.

Her colleague, Amber Vinson, also become infected. She, too, is clear of the virus but has not yet been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Tests no longer detect virus in her blood," the hospital said, adding that Vinson would stay in the serious communicable diseases unit for continued supportive care until further notice.

Pham and Vinson worked in the intensive care unit, though it remains unknown exactly how they were infected.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a "breach of protocol" was to blame, and has since issued stricter guidelines for donning protective gear when caring for Ebola patients.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama names Ebola 'czar', bolsters Texas response

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama appointed a former White House adviser as Ebola "czar" on Friday and named officials to bolster the response to the disease in Texas, the center of U.S. Ebola cases, as the death toll in three West African nations topped 4,500.

The White House appointments came as Obama faced criticism from some lawmakers over his administration's efforts to contain the hemorrhagic virus and as widening Ebola fears kept a U.S. cruise ship out of a Mexican port.

Obama appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer who had served as chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to oversee the U.S. Ebola response.

The White House also said it would send senior personnel to Dallas to help federal, state and local officials there trying to identify and monitor people who came in contact with three people who caught the disease.

The three include Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States, and two nurses who were on the team of health workers caring for Duncan until his death last week.

Obama met with health and national security aides and "underscored that the domestic response to Ebola cases must be seamless at all levels," the White House said in a statement.

It was the third consecutive day that Obama had convened officials to discuss what has become a major political issue for his Democratic administration ahead of mid-term elections next month.

The officials will include a Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinator, Kevin Hannes, and a White House liaison, Adrian Saenz, a presidential aide. Governor Rick Perry has named Texas emergency management chief W. Nim Kidd to coordinate the state Ebola effort, the White House said.

CRUISE SHIP QUARANTINE

Authorities said a Texas health worker, who was not ill but may have had contact with specimens from the patient, was quarantined on a cruise ship that departed on Sunday from Galveston, Texas.

The Carnival Magic, operated by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines, skipped a planned stop in Cozumel, Mexico, because of delays getting permission to dock from Mexican authorities, the cruise line said. The ship was scheduled to return to Galveston on Sunday.

A Mexican port authority official said the ship was denied clearance to avoid any possible risk from Ebola.

The countries worst hit by Ebola have been Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the disease has killed 4,546 since the outbreak started in March, an updated tally from the World Health Organization shows.

That marked a sharp increase from late July, when fewer than 730 people had died from the disease in West Africa. The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.

The toll on the worst-hit countries has gone beyond the illness, because of disruptions to farming and marketing. The World Food Program said food prices in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had risen an average of 24 percent, forcing some families to cut back to one meal a day.

U.S. ANXIETY

The White House appointments and the Mexican cruise ship incident highlighted anxiety over the threat from Ebola, even though the three Dallas cases are the only ones diagnosed in the United States.

Klain replaces U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden as the new public face of the government's response to Ebola. The CDC chief was strongly criticized for his handling of the situation in Dallas.

Republicans were quick to criticize Klain, who is seen as a political operative.

"Leave it to President Obama to put a liberal political activist in charge of the administration's Ebola response," Representative John Fleming, a Louisiana medical doctor, said in a statement.

Frieden told a congressional hearing this week that some protective equipment used by health care workers exposed some parts of the skin.

Given those concerns and the fact that two nurses got Ebola at the hospital, the CDC "very soon" will put out new guidelines on putting on and taking off protective gowns, masks, gloves and other gear, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said.

SCARE REACHES THE PENTAGON
Illustrating the public worry in the United States, the Pentagon confirmed an Ebola scare when a woman who recently traveled to Africa vomited after getting off a bus headed to a Marine Corps ceremony.

In a statement, Virginia health officials said Ebola had been ruled out as the cause of the woman's illness.

Klain was appointed the day after U.S. lawmakers, in a congressional hearing, criticized the administration's handling of Ebola. Some called for a ban on travel from West Africa, as other politicians have in recent weeks.

The White House said on Friday that Obama was willing to "keep an open mind" about a travel ban, but it was not being considered.

In a sign the disease can be beaten, the World Health Organization said the West African country of Senegal was now Ebola-free, although still vulnerable.

The CDC has said it is expanding its search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson, one of the nurses who treated Duncan, to include passengers on a flight she made to Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas. Vinson went to Ohio over the weekend on Frontier Airlines while running a slight fever.

One of the 48 people who had the earliest contact or possible contact with Duncan has come out of quarantine after showing no symptoms for 21 days of monitoring, a Dallas County official said. The man was the first to get the all-clear.

There is no cure for Ebola. But U.S. health officials have asked three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, when supplies ran out after it was given to medical workers who contracted the disease in West Africa.

Australian biotech firm CSL Ltd said it was working on a plasma product to treat Ebola following a request from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, part of a growing commercial response to the outbreak.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

World fears mount that Ebola battle being lost

GENEVA - The World Bank warned Friday the fight to stop Ebola was being lost, as the UN pleaded for more money to combat the escalating epidemic and global travel fears mounted.

As the death toll from the world's worst-ever outbreak of the virus shot past 4,500, a glimmer of hope came from Senegal, which was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization.

The United States, meanwhile, named an "Ebola czar" to coordinate its response, after criticism of how a Texas hospital handled a Liberian victim, with two nurses who treated him now infected.

And a researcher at British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline said a vaccine may not be ready for commercial use until late 2016.

"We are losing the battle," World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim warned, blaming a lack of international solidarity in efforts to stem the epidemic.

"Certain countries are only worried about their own borders," he told reporters in Paris.

As of October 14, 4,555 people have died from Ebola out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, the WHO says.

Most of the dead are in three West African nations at the centre of the outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Experts warn that the infection rate could hit 10,000 a week by early December.

- 'Very serious problem' -

The United Nations has warned that it has received less than 40 percent of the nearly $1 billion it asked for to fight Ebola.

So far, just $377 million has come in, and another $217 million has been pledged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"But that's not money in the bank," OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

And a UN trust fund for Ebola has just $100,000, despite $20 million in pledges -- a situation UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said had left the world body with a "very serious problem."

"We need to turn pledges into action. We need more doctors, nurses, equipment, treatment centres and medical evacuation capacities," he said.

- Travel fears -

Despite enhanced health checks at airports in several countries, fears mounted, and Air France flight attendants called for an end to flights to Guinea, one of the three hardest-hit nations in West Africa.

The daily Air France Paris-Conakry flight "carries a serious risk of spreading the epidemic, particularly in our country," read a statement from the two unions of flight crew and commercial staff.

France will on Saturday start carrying out health checks on travellers arriving from Guinea. The United States, Britain and Canada have already launched screenings at airports for passengers from Ebola-hit zones. The EU is reviewing the matter.

In the United States, health authorities were still facing questions about how the disease -- which kills around 70 percent of those it infects in West Africa -- had spread at a Texas hospital.

Other questions surfaced about the safety protocols in place for those who came in contact either with a Liberian man who died of Ebola at the hospital, or the two infected nurses who treated him.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded the number of airline passengers it wants to interview after the second nurse, Amber Vinson, flew from Dallas to Cleveland and back before being diagnosed.

And another Texas health care worker who may have come in contact with samples from the Liberian Ebola victim has voluntarily quarantined herself aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

Although that woman is considered at "very low risk" of infection, according to Carnival Cruise Lines, the ship was apparently denied entry at ports in Belize and Mexico, and was headed back to the US.

The US State Department deputy spokeswoman, Marie Harf, told reporters at a briefing that the ship, now en route to Galveston, Texas, is due to dock on Sunday.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, diarrhoea, vomiting and in some cases bleeding.

Even if a person is infected, the virus can only be passed on once symptoms appear and only through direct contact with their bodily fluids, such as mucus, semen, saliva, vomit, stool or blood.

- Influx of doctors -

The WHO is ramping up its efforts to help 15 African countries defend themselves against Ebola -- notably with measures to better protect health workers, who are paying a heavy price, with 236 deaths out of 427 cases across the affected countries.

The East African Community bloc comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania announced it was sending more than 600 health workers to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

And US Secretary of State John Kerry offered a rare praise to Cuba, which has sent 165 health care workers and plans to send 300 more to battle the outbreak.

A string of health workers have been evacuated back to Europe from Africa with Ebola, but the only confirmed case of transmission on the continent so far is a Spanish nurse in Madrid.

- Glimmers of hope -

Health authorities held up Senegal as a shining example of success in an otherwise dire global outlook on Ebola.

"Senegal's response is a good example of what to do when faced with an imported case of Ebola," the WHO said, lauding the government for having "reacted quickly to stop the disease from spreading".

Nigeria, where 20 people were infected and eight died, is expected to be declared Ebola-free on Monday. But neither is out of danger.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com