The head of the CDC is publicly stating that the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is “spiraling out of control” as the death toll has topped 1,900 and another American missionary has been confirmed to be infected with the virus.
Dr. Tom Frieden reports many countries “turned their backs” on those coming form countries who have been hit hard by the virus and that containment measures are actually hurting relief efforts in effected areas.
Frieden attended a United Nations conference where the world agency says over $600 million will be needed in medication and supplies to stop the outbreak.
The health officials at the UN conference also warned of the increase in spread of the virus. Cases have been reported in Nigeria and Senegal adding to the number of nations treating patients.
“We are working intensively with those governments to encourage them to commit to the movement of people and planes and at the same time deal with anxieties about the possibility of infection,” UN Coordinator for Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said.
Meanwhile, another health worker for the Christian relief agency SIM has been confirmed as a victim of the virus. Details are still sketchy regarding the latest case but officials say the man was working with pregnant women in a wing of the hospital away from Ebola cases and it was not clear how he was infected.
Nigeria has issued an order to shut all schools immediately out of fear the Ebola virus could break out in a student population.
“All state ministries of education are to immediately organize and ensure that at least two staff in each school, both private and public, are trained by appropriate health workers no later than Sept. 15 on how to handle any suspected case of Ebola,” said Education Minister Ibrahim Shekarau.
“And also embark on immediate sensitization of all teaching and non-teaching staff in all schools on preventive measures.”
Nigeria has reported five deaths from Ebola with most connected to a man who flew into the country after being infected in Liberia.
The World Health Organization admitted the current Ebola outbreak is out of control and has asked governments to take extraordinary steps to stop the virus from spreading. Even though Nigeria has only confirmed five cases, the government felt the shutting of the schools would be a prudent move to eradicate the outbreak in their country.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency over Ebola earlier this month.
The World Health Organization says the world’s largest historical outbreak of Ebola is likely to grow significantly bigger.
The WHO announced a $490 million dollar program to attempt to contain the virus and quell the outbreak. Doctors said it would take nine months at a minimum to get the outbreak under control and that 20,000 people could be confirmed to have contracted the virus by that point.
However, the WHO doctors admitted the likely amount of patients already infected is two to four times as high as the 3,069 officially listed cases because of patients that contracted the disease and died in rural villages.
The fatality rate of 52 percent, which has resulted in 1,552 deaths as of August 26th, has brought the total almost as high as all previously recorded outbreaks of the virus since its discovery in 1976.
British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has announced an experimental Ebola vaccine is being pushed into human studies in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health. If the results are good, they plan to send 10,000 doses immediately to infected countries.
West Africa already had some of the poorest nations in the world. Now, experts are saying the Ebola outbreak is driving so much business and commerce away from the region it endangers some of the nations.
African Development Bank head Donald Kaberuka said that the economic growth of most of the infected countries has already been slashed 4% and could increase the longer the outbreak is uncontained.
“Revenues are down, foreign exchange levels are down, markets are not functioning, airlines are not coming in, projects are being canceled, business people have left – that is very, very damaging,” Kaberuka told Reuters.
Kaberuka said that most of the countries involved have total GDP each year of around $6 billion U.S. dollars, so they’ve already been impacted around $240 million U.S.
Sierra Leone and Liberia have fragile economies after years of civil war.
The two American aid workers who had contracted the Ebola virus have been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and declared to be virus free.
Dr. Kent Brantly was released Thursday and spoke at a press conference where it was revealed that Nancy Writebol had been released secretly on Tuesday.
In his statement to reporters, Dr. Brantly repeatedly stated the reason that he knows he is alive.
“God saved my life,” Dr. Brantly said.
He shared the moments he realized that something was wrong.
“On Wednesday, July 23, I woke up feeling under the weather and then my life took an unexpected turn as I was diagnosed with Ebola. As I lay in my bed in Liberia for nine days, getting sicker each day, I prayed God would help be more faithful in even in my illness, and that in my illness or even death he would glorified,” Brantly said.
Brantly ended his statement to the press by asking everyone to continue praying for the victims in West Africa and to contact our leaders to get them involved in the fight to stop the spread of the virus.
Albanian officials are downplaying the fact that five of 40 illegal immigrants caught sneaking into the country on Thursday are showing signs of being infected with Ebola.
Officials say that the immigrants arrived from Eritrea by sneaking into Europe through Greece. The immigrants have been taken into quarantine at a hospital about 85 miles from Italy’s closest port.
The revelation of the possible infections comes hours after finding out that one person in Montenegro has been forced into quarantine with symptoms of Ebola. The person reportedly had entered legally into Montenegro from a West African nation.
European nations are starting to announce steps to protect their countries from Ebola. Serbia has announced 21-day medical surveillance for anyone who enters the country from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea or Nigeria.
Guinea has declared a nationwide public health emergency because of the current outbreak. Liberia announced they have obtained doses of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp and have started giving it to victims.
The Centers for Disease Control has issued their highest alert activation over the Ebola outbreak.
Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC Director, announced on the social network Twitter Wednesday the operations center has moved to a “level one response.”
The last two times the CDC has elevated to a level one was the 2009 outbreak of bird flu and to cover the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The level one is basically an “all hands on deck” order to stop the outbreak of disease.
The increase by the CDC is coming in the wake of Nigerian authorities admitting they did not immediately quarantine a sick man who arrived on an airplane that later died of Ebola. At least one other person directly connected to the man died of the disease and five others are confirmed to have the virus.
“What we do know is that the Ebola virus, both currently and in the past, is controllable if you have a strong public health infrastructure in place,” President Obama said. “The countries that have been affected are the first to admit that what’s happened here is that their public health systems have been overwhelmed. They weren’t able to identify and then isolate cases quickly enough. You did not have a strong trust relationship between some of the communities that were affected and public health workers. As a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been typical with the periodic Ebola outbreaks that have occurred previously.”
Dr. Pritish Tosh of the Mayo Clinic said that the conditions in the field to deal with Ebola are nowhere near the level of industrialized countries like the United States.
Nancy Writebol, the missionary with SIM USA who became infected with Ebola while working in a relief hospital in Liberia, has arrived in Atlanta to be treated at Emory University Hospital.
Doctors at Emory University Hospital have confirmed that Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, who was transported last week, are being given a very experimental vaccine for Ebola that had never been tested in humans.
Officials say that both Writebol and Brantly agreed to be “human guinea pigs” for the vaccine and went into it knowing the side effects of the drug would be unknown.
A spokesman for Samaritan’s Purse said that both patients saw marked improvements in their conditions after undergoing the experimental treatment. Dr. Brantly has even been able to visit with his family although separated by several layers of thick glass.
SIM USA released information that said Writebol became infected while she was working to disinfect the protective suits worn by the doctors and nurses inside the isolation ward.
The World Health Organization’s assurances that the Ebola virus would not spread from an American man who contracted the disease and then flew to Nigeria where he died has been shown to be false.
Nigerian health officials confirmed Monday that one of the doctors who was treating Patrick Sawyer as he died is now infected with the deadly virus.
Nigerian officials now say they’re doing all they can to track down health workers who had contact with Sawyer and also those who flew with him on the flight to Lagos, Nigeria. Lagos is Nigeria’s most populous city.
Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu revealed that three other people have been showing signs of Ebola and are currently awaiting test results.
Authorities in Liberia ordered Monday for all the bodies of Ebola victims to be cremated in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading to family members at funerals or during transport to burial sites.
Doctors Without Borders says this is the first time Ebola has been able to entrench itself in major African cities.
Two American missionaries who contracted the Ebola virus while working to help the African victims of the disease are being brought to the United States.
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are being flown to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The two will be held in a very strictly controlled wing of the hospital inside a chamber with negative pressure keeping air inside the wing.
Both of the patients are said to be in grave but stable condition.
The patients are reportedly going to be transferred on a special plane chartered by the CDC that has isolation pods. The move comes on the heels of an experimental treatment being sent to Liberia. Dr. Brantley refused to take it and demanded it be given to Nancy Writebol.
The CDC issued a warning to travelers to avoid Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Samaritan’s Purse, SIM and the Peace Corps are all pulling their volunteers from those countries because of the uncontrolled outbreak of the virus.
