For many journalists Ebola's invisible threat scarier than war

PARIS - You can't see shells falling, guns pointed or identify the bad guys: for many journalists the invisible threat of Ebola is more unnerving than covering a war.

Along with health workers and aid workers, journalists have to get right up close to the epidemic to do their job, donning gloves, masks and rubber boots and washing hands with chlorine countless times a day.

"We have less difficulty finding journalists to go to Iraq or Central African Republic" than Ebola-hit countries, said Claire Hedon of Radio France Internationale (RFI) who just returned from Guinea.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, have borne the brunt of the epidemic which has killed over 4,500 people out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, according to the World Health Organization.

At least five local journalists have succumbed to Ebola, according to media unions. Three were in Liberia and two in Sierra Leone, including the radio journalist Victor Kassim who died along with his wife, two children and mother.

Three media workers were also among an eight-member Ebola education team murdered last month by panicked villagers in a remote area near the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea.

So far only one of the dozens of Western journalists covering the epidemic in west Africa has caught Ebola -- Ashoka Mukpo, an American freelancer for NBC who is recovering well.

But for those on the ground stalked by an unseen enemy, every interview poses a risk.

"Some journalists used to covering war zones have not volunteered for family reasons," explains Sofia Bouderbala, deputy editor-in-chief for Agence France Presse's Europe and Africa region.

"It is an invisible threat. In war zones you can see the shells falling."

Associated Press international editor-in-chief John Daniszewski said that the subject was "very stressful" to cover, as you can't see the enemy.

- Interviewing at a distance -
On top of all the safety precautions, one of the main rules on the ground for reporters is to keep your distance.

"The basic rule is don't touch anything or anyone. And two weeks without touching anyone is weird," said AFP's Marc Bastian who recently returned from Monrovia.

"We left with litres of disinfectant. We sprayed our shoes with bleach, we washed our hands 40, 50 times a day," he said.

"Photographers use telephoto lenses to photograph the sick and I once shouted out an interview with someone eight metres away."

For radio reporters who need sound, the process is equally tricky.

Yves Rocle, deputy director for the Africa region with RFI explains that their journalists use a boom to get sound. "We avoid contact," he said.

"I have interviewed the sick from two metres away, where it is considered you won't be hit by spittle," said the Hedon, who admits that sometimes one's attention can slip and possibly fatal errors be made.

"To be honest, you let your guard down. Yes in the end I shook a few hands."

- Shunned upon return -

The assignment doesn't end at the airport.

For many coming home to face fearful colleagues and family members, while still anxiously counting down the incubation period themselves, it can be a scary and lonely time.

"When coming back you take your own temperature for 21 days, the incubation period, and you worry at the slightest alert," said Guillaume Lhotellier, who went to Guinea for the Elephant production company.

"And your social life isn't great, there are people who refuse to shake your hand or see you, even though you are not contagious if you don't have a fever."

Even if a person is infected, only direct contact with their bodily fluids -- mucus, semen, saliva, vomit, stool or blood -- after they begin to show symptoms carries any risk of contagion.

But fear over the disease has led to extreme precautions.

Faced with a panicked wife, Johannes Dieterich, the South Africa correspondent for Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger, said that he slept in the guest room on his return and decided not to touch anyone for three weeks until the incubation period was over.

The BBC's Fiona Bruce, quoted by The Telegraph, said make-up artists were scared of taking care of guests coming from Ebola-hit countries.

Media organisations are divided over the idea of a systematic quarantine during the incubation period for reporters returning from the field.

The BBC and AFP allow journalists to come straight back to work.

"Our journalists respect our very strict guidelines on location. They are not a risk to their colleagues because they have no symptoms of the disease. We don't want to give in to hysteria," said Michele Leridon, AFP's news director.

However AP asks its journalists to stay at home for three weeks to "avoid any risk", said Daniszewski.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Americans 'can't give in to hysteria or fear' over Ebola: Obama

WASHINGTON - With three cases of Ebola diagnosed in the United States but more than 100 people being monitored in case they contract the disease, President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday not to give in to "hysteria" about the spread of the virus.

As though to illustrate his point, a Dallas bus and train station was closed on Saturday afternoon over concern about a woman who fell ill. The woman was first reported to be on the checklist for possible Ebola exposure, but then turned out not to be on any such list.

Obama made plain he is not currently planning to give in to demands from some lawmakers for a ban on travelers from the worst-hit countries.

"We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "Trying to seal off an entire region of the world - if that were even possible - could actually make the situation worse," he said.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed more than 4,500 people, most of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Obama, whose approval rating is already low, has been criticized over his administration's handling of Ebola. He held a flurry of meetings on the issue in the past week and on Friday appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer with long Washington experience, to oversee the effort to contain the disease.

Republicans questioned why he did not pick a medical expert.

"I hope he (Klain) is successful in this. I think it's a step in the right direction, but I just question picking someone without any background in public health," Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN on Saturday.

The Obama administration is not alone in facing criticism. The World Health Organization has been faulted for failing to do enough to halt the spread since the outbreak was detected in March.

The agency promised it would publish a full review of its handling of the crisis once the outbreak was under control, in response to a leaked document that appeared to acknowledge that it had failed to do enough.

There is no cure or approved vaccine yet for Ebola but pharmaceutical companies have been working on experimental drugs. The virus is transmitted through an infected person's bodily fluids and it is not airborne.

Canada said on Saturday it would ship 800 vials of its experimental Ebola vaccine, undergoing clinical trials, to the WHO in Geneva, starting on Monday. Iowa-based NewLink Genetics Corp holds the commercial license for the Canadian vaccine.

Britain's biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Saturday that work to develop a vaccine was moving at an "unprecedented rate" and the next phase - if successful - involving vaccinating frontline healthcare workers, would begin early 2015.

RASH OF SCARES

Obama sought to put the extent of the disease in the United States in perspective. "What we're seeing now is not an 'outbreak' or an 'epidemic' of Ebola in America," he said. "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear."

A rash of Ebola scares has hit the country since late September when a Liberian visitor to Dallas, Texas, became the first person to be diagnosed in the United States. Americans' faith in the medical system and in authorities' ability to prevent the disease from spreading was jolted by a series of mis-steps when the Liberian was initially not diagnosed by a Dallas hospital.

The man, Thomas Eric Duncan, was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital days later and diagnosed with Ebola. Two nurses who were part of the team caring for Duncan, who died on Oct. 8, contracted Ebola. Amber Vinson is being cared for at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital, while Nina Pham is being treated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just outside Washington.

A chain of people who had contact with either Duncan or the sick nurses are being monitored in case they develop the disease, which has an incubation period of up to 21 days.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement on its website dated Saturday that it was working to monitor people who had contact with the Ebola patients, specimens, or potentially contaminated surfaces. A total of 145 "contacts and possible contacts" were being monitored for symptoms, while 14 people had completed surveillance, it said.

Some 800 passengers who took the same planes as Vinson on a trip she made to Ohio before being diagnosed, and passengers on subsequent flights using the same planes, have been contacted by the airline, Frontier Airlines, the carrier said on Saturday.

The airline said in a letter to employees that it had been informed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the Dallas nurse may have been in a more advanced stage of the illness than previously thought, when she traveled back to Dallas from Cleveland on Oct. 13.

The White House said late on Friday 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 the three people who fell sick with Ebola.

Those being monitored include a lab worker at the Dallas hospital, who is not ill but is in isolation at sea: in her cabin on the Carnival Magic cruise ship. The lab worker did not have contact with Duncan, but may have come in contact with test samples.

Her presence on the ship caused Mexican authorities to deny docking at the Mexican port of Cozumel on Friday. The Carnival Magic, owned by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines, was en route back to Galveston on Sunday.

At Dallas' White Rock station, a woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation on Saturday, the city's transit authority said. Local media reported the station was closed as she was being monitored for possible Ebola exposure, but the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system said she was not on a watchlist.

Obama has stressed that containing Ebola should include help for the worst-hit countries and Washington plans to deploy up to 4,000 military personnel to the region by late October. Obama is preparing to ask for additional funds from Congress to beat Ebola, and could make the request next week, according to a Bloomberg report.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday European Union leaders should raise the amount of money pledged to fight Ebola to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and mobilize at least 2,000 workers to head to West Africa.

He made the appeal in a letter to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy. A spokeswoman at Cameron's office said the EU commission and 28 member states had pledged a total of 500 million euros so far to fight Ebola.

Combatting the disease was also among the subjects of talks being held on Friday and Saturday between American and Chinese top diplomats.

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech in Washington, Frank McGurty in New York, Anna Driver in Dallas, Tom Miles in Geneva, and Costas Pitas in London; Writing by Frances Kerry and Megan Davies; Editing by David Clarke and Grant McCool)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com