Ebola is back - Epidemic Coming?

"We've been disappointed by the World Health Assembly and again by the G7 in terms of their recommendations," Liu, the international president of MSF, told Reuters. She was referring also to a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting last month.

The WHO did not declare an international public health emergency until August last year, eight months after the first Ebola case, delaying resources to the sick.

Jerome Mouton, MSF country head for Guinea, described a state of "semi-denial" about the virus similar to a year ago, adding that another major flare-up of the disease was possible.

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Jerome Mouton, MSF country head for Guinea, described a state of "semi-denial" about the virus similar to a year ago, adding that another major flare-up of the disease was possible.

"We are in the same situation where we are overly optimistic, saying that it is almost finished and there's no problem but in fact it's a big problem as there is potential for this to again set off a big epidemic," he said.

Canadian scientists have shown that the deadliest form of the ebola virus could be transmitted by air between species.

In experiments, they demonstrated that the virus was transmitted from pigs to monkeys without any direct contact between them.

The researchers say they believe that limited airborne transmission might be contributing to the spread of the disease in some parts of Africa.

They are concerned that pigs might be a natural host for the lethal infection.

Ebola viruses cause fatal haemorrhagic fevers in humans and many other species of non human primates.

Details of the research were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

(Here we show ZEBOV transmission from pigs to cynomolgus macaques without direct contact. Interestingly, transmission between macaques in similar housing conditions was never observed. Piglets inoculated oro-nasally with ZEBOV were transferred to the room housing macaques in an open inaccessible cage system. All macaques became infected. Infectious virus was detected in oro-nasal swabs of piglets, and in blood, swabs, and tissues of macaques. This is the first report of experimental interspecies virus transmission, with the macaques also used as a human surrogate. Our finding may influence prevention and control measures during EBOV outbreaks.)

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the infection gets into humans through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs and other bodily fluids from a number of species including chimpanzees, gorillas and forest antelope.

The fruit bat has long been considered the natural reservoir of the infection. But a growing body of experimental evidence suggests that pigs, both wild and domestic, could be a hidden source of Ebola Zaire - the most deadly form of the virus.

Now, researchers from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the country's Public Health Agency have shown that pigs infected with this form of Ebola can pass the disease on to macaques without any direct contact between the species.

In their experiments, the pigs carrying the virus were housed in pens with the monkeys in close proximity but separated by a wire barrier. After eight days, some of the macaques were showing clinical signs typical of Ebola and were euthanized.

One possibility is that the monkeys became infected by inhaling large aerosol droplets produced from the respiratory tracts of the pigs.

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CUMULATIVE CASES

• Cumulative confirmed cases = 8,656 as follows:
  Kailahun = 565, Kenema = 503, Kono = 253 Bombali = 1,049, Kambia = 244, Koinadugu = 109, Port Loko = 1,477, Tonkolili = 454 Bo = 314, Bonthe = 5, Moyamba = 209, Pujehun = 31 Western Area Urban = 2,262, Western Area Rural = 1,164, Missing = 14  CUMULATIVE DEATHS

• Total cumulative confirmed death is 3,560

• Probable cases = 287

• Probable deaths = 208

• Suspected cases = 4,079

• Suspected deaths = 158

Ebola Virus Disease Situation Report
PROVIDED BY: The Ministry of Health and Sanitation

comment: So that is a 4!% CFR (case fatality ratio)

By YOUSSOUF BAH, Associated Press

June 24, 2015 | 10:27 a.m. EDT

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Despite hopes that the deadly Ebola outbreak could soon be contained in West Africa, it shows no signs of abating in Guinea and may be flaring up once more in Sierra Leone as people are flouting rules limiting travel meant to stop it.

The election in Guinea in October adds a new layer of worry for Guineans and health workers, with some residents saying that campaign events, in which people crowd together, shouldn't be held yet.

The deadly virus, which has killed over 11,100 people mostly in West Africa in its worst outbreak ever, has been stamped out in neighboring Liberia, but is hanging on stubbornly in Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first reported in March 2014. Impending presidential elections could make it even worse.

"Ebola is on the rise again because of population movements. People move from one place to another," said Dr. Amadou Talibe, an Ebola reponse team worker in Dubreka, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of capital, Conakry. "People who have come into contact with Ebola but have not been identified, they go to another village and only then develop the symptoms of Ebola and then contaminate others."

Last Wednesday, 32 medical staff, including nurses and 4 doctors working at the PCMH Hospital in Freetown, were taken into quarantine at the PTS Ebola treatment centre, after attending to a pregnant woman who was later diagnosed with EVD.

According to reports from Freetown, the pregnant woman spent five days in the post-natal ward at the PCMH, where she was transfused with one unit of blood, after which she started running temperature and was later confirmed Ebola positive.

This latest development once again calls into question, the porosity of the health care system in Sierra Leone, which many believe still lacks the resilience to deal with the ongoing Ebola crisis.

Can Ebola be eradicated in Sierra Leone? Is the government able and willing to bring this crisis to an end, after Helen Sirleaf of Liberia has shown how it can be done?  Is Sierra Leone sleep walking into yet another round of Ebola epidemic?

comment: Ebola is highly contagious. This article will give a person a better idea of what is the cutting edge research being done to cure Ebola.

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Technophobe wrote: SCARY!  Thanks for keeping your eye on the ball, Med.

MONROVIA, Liberia — More than a month after being declared free of Ebola, Liberia has experienced a new case of the disease, discovered when the body of 17-year-old boy tested positive for the virus, officials said Tuesday.

The World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9, a landmark moment in the country, which has suffered more deaths from the epidemic than any other.

Now, the emergence of a new case ends the nation’s Ebola-free status, said Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s deputy minister for health, at a news conference in the capital, Monrovia.

The WHO did not declare an international public health emergency until August last year, eight months after the first Ebola case, delaying resources to the sick.

Jerome Mouton, MSF country head for Guinea, described a state of "semi-denial" about the virus similar to a year ago, adding that another major flare-up of the disease was possible.

Liberia confirmed a third new case of the deadly Ebola virus on Thursday, as the disease re-emerges nearly two months after the outbreak was declared over in the West African nation, a senior health official said.

Liberia, where 4,800 people have died out of the 11,200 killed in the West African Ebola outbreak, was declared Ebola-free on May 9 even as the disease has continued to infect new victims in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea. But Liberia's success story has been undermined this week by the discovery of new cases.

"We have, as of yesterday, three confirmed cases. One expired, who was the 17-year-old boy ... The two live cases are 24 years old and 27 years old. They are stable," Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said on Thursday.

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MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Liberia is working hard to contain Ebola and find the source of the latest infections of the deadly virus recorded this week.

The West African country previously succeeded in containing the outbreak, despite being initially the hardest hit with more than 4,800 deaths. The last recorded case before this latest emergence was on March 20, according to the World Health Organization.

"We will contain it quickly because of where we are in the learning curve as far as Ebola is concerned," said Dr. Philip Ireland at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in the capital, Monrovia.

Ebola was found on the corpse of a 17-year-old boy who died Sunday. Two new cases have been linked to the teen, the only two known cases as of Friday, said Liberia Ebola response chief Tolbert Nyenswah.

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Ministry of Health and Sanitation - Sierra Leone

Ebola Update July 10, 2014

• For the 9th July 2014, a total of 20 samples were received by the Laboratory: Kailahun (5), Kenema (13), Bo (1) and Western Area (1). Seven (7) of the 20 samples have been confirmed positive for Ebola from Kailahun (4), Kenema (2) & Bo (1).Ten (10) of the remaining samples are negative while 3 Laboratory results are pending.
• One of the laboratory pending results yesterday is now negative while 1 sample is still under processing in the laboratory
• The cumulative number of Laboratory confirmed cases is 305 and 92 confirmed deaths
• The cumulative discharge cases is still 39
• The National Petroleum (NP) family, comprising staff, dealers and transporters made a cash donation of 110 million Leones and 10,000 gallons of fuel to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation as it contribution towards the fight against the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD)

Ebola Viral Disease Situation Report – Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone

For more information please contact – District Health Management Team at District level

National level – Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control: dpcsurveillance@gmail.com

Mobile:- +23276913000

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