September To October 2014 Ebola Virus News Articles
U.S. begins enhanced Ebola screening program at New York's JFK airport.By Sebastien MaloOctober 11, 2014 3AM - 1 hour ago http://news.yahoo.com/u-begins-enhanced-ebola-screening-program-yorks-jfk-040617098.html?soc_src=copy NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stepped up efforts by the U.S. to halt the spread of the Ebola virus will start at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, where teams armed with thermal guns and questionnaires will screen travelers from West African countries hit hardest by the outbreak. JFK Airport is the first of five U.S. airports to start enhanced screening of U.S.-bound travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where most of the outbreak's more than 4,000 deaths have occurred. Nearly all of those traveling to the United States from those countries arrive at JFK, Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. The new procedures will begin at the other four airports next week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the airport screening is just one aspect of an overall strategy to fight the spread of Ebola. "Because we want to protect the American public, we are taking a tiered approach," said CDC spokesman Jason McDonald . But even before authorities start checking passengers for fevers, critics questioned whether the screenings would prove effective at stopping travelers infected with the often fatal Ebola virus from entering the country. JFK is the U.S. entry point for nearly half of the roughly 150 travelers who arrive daily from the three West African countries, and those flights amount to about one-tenth of 1 percent of all international daily arrivals to the airport, McDonald said.
The Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will conduct the screenings under CDC direction, McDonald said. Using FDA-approved infrared temperature guns, the CBP staffers will check for elevated temperatures among passengers whose journeys began or included a stop in one of the three West African countries. Screeners will also assess passengers for signs of potential illness and ask them to answer questions about their health and whether they may have come into contact with an Ebola patient. Those with a fever or other symptoms or possible exposure to Ebola will be referred to the CDC, which will determine next steps. Health authorities may decide to take a person to a hospital for evaluation, testing and treatment, or to quarantine or isolate the patient under federal law, according to the CDC. "Breaking a federal quarantine order is punishable by fines and imprisonment," according to the CDC's website. But U.S. health authorities have never before used fever monitoring to screen travelers, said Lawrence Gostin, who teaches global health law at Georgetown Law School, and that monitoring didn't work well when used in Canada and Asia during the SARS outbreak in 2002. Fever-monitoring "had virtually no effectiveness," he said. "It is unlikely to keep us safe." Taking over-the-counter medication during the flight can easily help travelers bring down a fever to evade detection, Gostin said. Passengers also could lie on questionnaires aimed at determining whether the traveler has been exposed to the deadly virus, said Dr. David Mabey, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "People may not fill them in very truthfully. They don't want to be delayed for hours," Mabey said.Passengers are already screened when they depart from the three West African countries. In the two months since those screenings began, only 77 of the 36,000 screened travelers were denied boarding, the CDC said. Many of them were diagnosed later with malaria, and none with Ebola. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who died in Dallas this week, was able to fly to the United States from Liberia because he didn't have a fever when screened at the airport in the capital, Monrovia. And he filled out a questionnaire saying he had not been in contact with anyone infected with Ebola. Liberian officials have said Duncan lied on the questionnaire and had been in contact with a pregnant woman who later died. Both Mabey and Gostin said it was unlikely that a person who passed the temperature screening at departure time would develop a high fever during the plane ride to the United States But Dr. Jeffrey Griffiths, who teaches about infectious disease at Tufts University School of Medicine, said the U.S. screenings "will incrementally pick up some people" and are a valuable tool to raise awareness that early detection and treatment are key to survival. "You want to convert yourself to a person who it's caught in early and increase your chances of making it," Griffiths said.(Additional reporting and writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Frank McGurty, Bernard Orr)HealthPublic HealthWest African countriesJFK AirportCDC.
Health worker 2nd in US to test positive for EbolaAssociated PressBy NOMAAN MERCHANT 1 hour ago http://news.yahoo.com/state-health-officials-2nd-ebola-case-texas-102955708.html Police stand guard outside the apartment of a hospital worker and a yellow barrel, left, that holds hazardous materials, Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014, in Dallas. The Texas health care worker, who was in full protective gear when they provided hospital care for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who later died, has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. (AP Photo/Roger Steinman) DALLAS (AP) A Texas health care worker who was in full protective gear while providing hospital care for an Ebola patient who later died has tested positive for the virus and is in stable condition, health officials said Sunday. If the preliminary diagnosis is confirmed, it would be the first known case of the disease being contracted or transmitted in the U.S. Meanwhile, a top federal health official said the health care worker's Ebola diagnosis shows there was a clear breach of safety protocol and all those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan are now considered to be potentially exposed. Dr. Daniel Varga, of the Texas Health Resources, said during a news conference Sunday that the worker wore a gown, gloves, mask and shield while they provided care to Duncan during his second visit to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. Varga did not identify the worker and says the family of the worker has "requested total privacy." Varga says the health care worker reported a fever Friday night as part of a self-monitoring regimen required by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said another person also remains in isolation, and the hospital has stopped accepting new emergency room patients. Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas."We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread." But Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Sunday raised concerns about a possible breach of safety protocol and told CBS' "Face the Nation" that among the things CDC will investigate is how the workers took off that gear because removing it incorrectly can lead to a contamination. "I think the fact that we don't know of a breach in protocol is concerning, because clearly there was a breach in protocol," Frieden said. "We have the ability to prevent the spread of Ebola by caring safely for patients ... We'll conduct a full investigation of what happens before health workers go in, what happens when they're there, and what happens in the taking out, taking off their protective equipment because infections only occur when there's a breach in protocol." Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures. They said people who had contact with the health care worker after symptoms emerged will be monitored based on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus. Officials said they also received information that there may be a pet in the health care worker's apartment, and they have a plan in place to care for the animal. They do not believe the pet has signs of having contracted Ebola. Judge Clay Jenkins, Dallas County's top administrative official, said the unidentified health care worker is a "heroic" person who "was proud to provide care to Mr. Duncan." He said the health care worker's family has requested privacy because they are "going through a great ordeal." More than 4,000 people have died in the ongoing Ebola epidemic centered in West Africa, according to World Health Organization figures published Friday. Almost all of those deaths have been in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Health care workers treating Ebola patients are among the most vulnerable, even if wearing protective gear. A Spanish nurse assistant recently became the first health care worker infected outside west Africa during the ongoing outbreak: she helped care for a missionary priest who was brought to a Madrid hospital. More than 370 health care workers in west Africa have fallen ill or died in west Africa since epidemic began earlier this year. Ebola spreads through close contact with a symptomatic person's bodily fluids, such as blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen. Those fluids must have an entry point, like a cut or scrape or someone touching the nose, mouth or eyes with contaminated hands, or being splashed. The World Health Organization says blood, feces and vomit are the most infectious fluids, while the virus is found in saliva mostly once patients are severely ill and the whole live virus has never been culled from sweat. Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died Wednesday in Dallas. Duncan grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life. Duncan arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy's mother successfully applied for resettlement. The trip was the culmination of decades of effort, friends and family members said. But when Duncan arrived in Dallas, though he showed no symptoms, he had already been exposed to Ebola. His neighbors in Liberia believe Duncan become infected when he helped a pregnant neighbor who later died from it. It was unclear if he knew about her diagnosis before traveling. Duncan had arrived at a friend's Dallas apartment on Sept.20 less than a week after helping his sick neighbor. For the nine days before he was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, Duncan shared the apartment with several people.
This just in Sunday October 12, 2014 7:45am ETTexas health care worker who treated Thomas Eric Duncan tests positive for Ebola http://theweek.com/article/index/269754/speedreads-texas-health-care-worker-who-treated-thomas-eric-duncan-tests-positive-for-ebola A health care worker who helped treat Thomas Eric Duncan earlier this week has preliminarily tested positive for the Ebola virus. If confirmatory tests administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also are positive, the new patient will be the first to contract Ebola on U.S. soil, The Associated Press reports."We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."The new patient's name and the capacity in which he or she provided treatment to Duncan was not immediately identified. Officials told AP that the patient was placed in isolation on Friday night after reporting a low-grade fever and undergoing preliminary testing. Health officials are now identifying any individuals the new patient may have come in contact with after his or her symptoms began.Thomas Eric Duncan died last week at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, in Dallas. He had left Liberia in mid-September and traveled to the United States to reunite with relatives, but he had been exposed to the Ebola virus while helping a pregnant neighbor in Liberia.- - Sarah Eberspacher
By Jason Sickles, Yahoo 1 hour ago Yahoo News
As of 9:49 AM EDT October 15, 2014 http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-diagnosed-in-second-dallas-nurse-105542930.html A decontamination team enters the apartment of a second Dallas nurse infected with Ebola. (Dallas Police Department)DALLAS: A second Texas nurse who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan has become infected with the deadly disease, health officials announced early Wednesday.Officials said the unidentified woman reported a fever on Tuesday and was immediately isolated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas."Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a written statement. "The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus."The positive test for Ebola was determined about midnight Tuesday at a state laboratory in Austin. Results from a second testing by the CDC in Atlanta are expected later Wednesday.On Wednesday morning, a hazardous materials team was decontaminating the nurse’s Dallas apartment in a popular community not far from the hospital. City officials said the woman lived alone and had no pets.The latest nurse becomes the third person to be diagnosed with Ebola in Dallas since Sept. 30. City officials addressed the public early Wednesday."We want to deal with facts not fear," Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said. "We are not fearful. It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better."Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian citizen who had recently travelled from West Africa to Dallas, died from Ebola a week ago at Texas Health Presbyterian. He was the first person to ever be diagnosed with the virus in the United States. The disease, for which there is no known cure, has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa in 2014, the World Health Organization estimates.Duncan, 42, was treated at Texas Health Presbyterian for 10 days before his death. Last Friday, 26-year-old nurse Nina Pham began running a fever while at home and went to the hospital where she isolated. She tested positive for Ebola on Sunday. Hospital officials reported that she was in good condition as of late Tuesday.[Related: Better federal response "might have prevented" Dallas Ebola infections]Texas Health Presbyterian officials have said Pham wore protective clothing and insist staff followed safety precautions issued by federal officials. How Pham, a nurse for four years, contracted Ebola hasn’t been determined, but CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden has said he believes there was a breach in safety procedures.Pham’s diagnosis sparked immediate angst for workers at Texas Health Presbyterian. On Tuesday, the CDC said 76 health care workers who could have come in contact with Duncan were being monitored for symptoms."As we have said before, because of our ongoing investigation, it is not unexpected that there would be additional exposures," the CDC said in a written statement early Wednesday. "An additional health care worker testing positive for Ebola is a serious concern, and the CDC has already taken active steps to minimize the risk to health care workers and the patient."News of the third Ebola infection comes a day after the largest U.S. nurses' union alleged that some Texas Health Presbyterian workers reported nurses treated Duncan for days without proper protective gear and faced constantly changing protocols.RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of Nurses United, said the allegations came from "several" and "a few" nurses, but she refused repeated inquiries to state how many, the Associated Press reported. She said the organization had vetted the claims, and that the nurses cited were in a position to know what had occurred at the hospital. She refused to elaborate.A hospital spokesman did not respond to specific claims by the nurses but said the hospital has not received similar complaints.(This story was updated at 8:20 a.m. ET. October 15, 2014 Please check back for updates.)Jason Sickles is a reporter for Yahoo. Have a story tip? Email him at jsickles@yahoo-inc.com. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).
A German hospital reported that a UN Medical worker infected with Ebola died today October 14, 2014 as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
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The clinic for infectious diseases at St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, announced on October 14, 2014, that a patient infected with the Ebola virus who was treated at the hospital has died. The patient was a UN employee who was flown in from Liberia. (Hendrik Scmidt EPA)By Associated PressAfricaInternational OrganizationsEbolaUnited NationsGerman hospital says United Nations' medical team member who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has diedA United Nations medical worker who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite "intensive medical procedures," a German hospital said Tuesday.The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. It released no further details and did not answer telephone calls.The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia's UN peacekeeping mission to place 41 staff members who had possibly been in contact with him under "close medical observation."He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Oct. 9 where he was put into a special isolation unit.The man was the third Ebola patient to be flown to Germany for treatment.
