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WHO pushes back against Ebola-related flight bans |
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Sam
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Posted: August 14 2014 at 8:19pm |
WHO pushes back against Ebola-related flight bansFiled Under: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/ebola - Ebola http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/infectious-disease-topics/vhf - VHF http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/ongoing-programsews-publishingews-publishing-staff - Lisa Schnirring | Staff Writer | CIDRAP News Aug 14, 2014
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/s/public/media/article/airplane_behind_fence_0.jpg - airplane_behind_fence.jpg http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/s/publics/detail/public/media/article/airplane_behind_fence_0.jpgitok=MNVRyFqX - Passenger airplane behind fence Chalabala / iStock With some airlines suspending flights to West Africa's Ebola outbreak region, the World Health Organization (WHO) today restated its position that the risk of disease transmission during air travel remains low, as a few doses of an investigational drug reached Africa. Korean Air Lines (KAL) announced today that it would suspend flights to Nairobi, Kenya, starting Aug 20 to prevent the spread of Ebola virus disease (EVD), according to a report today from Reuters. KAL operates three return flights from Nairobi each week. Kenya has not reported any Ebola cases and does not border the affected area, though the WHO has urged it to take extra precautions, given the volume of travel between it and the outbreak countries. Earlier this month, British Airways said it was suspending service to Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the EVD outbreak. Emirates Airlines, based in Dubai, has also suspended flights to Guinea. So far, only one travel-related illness has been detected, in an airline passenger from Liberia who was sick upon his arrival in Nigeria, an event that sparked a transmission chain in the capital, Lagos. However, some airlines are concerned about the safety of passengers and staff who might need to seek care in a medical facility in outbreak countries. WHO repeats advice against flight suspensionsIsabelle Nuttall, MD, director of the WHO Global Capacity Alert and Response, said in a WHO statement today that unlike flu and tuberculosis, Ebola doesn't spread through the air. "It can only be transmitted by direct contact with the body fluids of a person who is sick with the disease." The WHO added that on the small chance that someone on a plane is sick with Ebola, the likelihood of other passengers and crew having contact with their body fluids is even smaller. Typically, when a person is sick with Ebola, they are so unwell that they can't travel. Health experts also say people who are infected with Ebola can't shed the virus until they have symptoms. Last week the WHO's emergency committee on Ebola said the outbreak developments in West Africa qualify as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), and it recommended a set of measures to curb the spread of the disease. The panel urged no bans on international travel or trade and that countries make sure they have the capacity to identify and care for travelers from Ebola-affected areas who arrive at travel hubs or destinations with unexplained fevers or other symptoms. On its Twitter account today, the WHO said international airlines in affected countries are putting systems in place to screen passengers for possible infections. Global health officials have said exit screening in outbreak countries is likely to be more effective for flagging illnesses than entry screening in destination countries, because nonstop flights from African countries aren't the most common route, and it's more difficult to track passengers when they take multi-leg flights. The WHO also tweeted that it is disappointed when airlines stop flying to West Africa: "Hard to save lives if we and other health workers cannot get in." Treatment, vaccine developmentsIn treatment developments, the first three doses of the experimental drug Zmapp arrived in Liberia last night, with two of them earmarked for two of the country's doctors who are in an isolation center at a hospital in Monrovia, the capital, AllAfrica reported today. A Liberian health official said the government negotiated with the company, with the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to explore how the drugs could be given to the patients in Liberia. He also said negations are underway with other firms developing experimental Ebola drugs, including the Canadian company Tekmira, which makes the only Ebola treatment that has entered clinical trials. Meanwhile, the president of NewLink Genetics Corp., which is developing an experimental Ebola vaccine based on technology developed by Canadian government researchers , said at least two contract manufacturers have been found to produce "tens of thousands" of doses in the next month or two, according to Reuters. Charles Link, MD, told Reuters that the company's subsi***** has received funding from the US Department of Defense to speed up clinical trials and manufacturing. Canada's government recently announced that it will donate 800 to 1,000 doses of the vaccine that it has on hand to the WHO for use in battling the outbreak. In another move that could speed development of an experimental treatment, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., announced yesterday that it has received an additional $4.1 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to conduct a phase 1 clinical trial of an intramuscular treatment for Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fever diseases. The additional funding for the treatment, called BXC4430, will also cover studies in nonhuman primates to gauge effective dose ranges and schedules. The NIAID made its initial grant to BioCryst , valued at up to $22 million over 5 years, in September 2013. In other developments, the FDA today warned consumers about online companies that are selling products to prevent or treat Ebola. In a statement it said it has received consumer complaints about a variety of products. Though Ebola vaccines and treatments are under development, in early stages with very limited supply, there are no approved products that have been tested for safety or effectiveness, the FDA noted. The agency added that by law, dietary supplements can't claim to prevent or cure disease. The FDA also mentioned that the CDC doesn't view the outbreak as a significant threat to the US public and noted that during outbreaks, fraudulent products that purport to prevent or treat the disease often appear on the market. Latest African developmentsGuinea's government has declared a national health emergency to tamp down the spread of Ebola, BBC News reported today, based on information from Guinea's state radio. The action is meant to trigger tighter border controls, order the immediate isolation of people with suspected infections, and prevent the movement of dead bodies from one town to another. When the WHO declared a PHEIC on Aug 8, it urged the outbreak countries to declare national emergencies. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria had already declared national emergencies. Sierra Leone has lost its second top doctor to EVD, Dr Modupeh Cole, who died yesterday at a Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Kailahun, the New York Times reported. The health ministry said he was exposed to the virus while working in a hospital in Freetown, the capital, according to the Times report. Nigerian health officials also today reported another death of a health worker, a nurse who had helped care for the country's first EVD case, a man whose illness was detected in Lagos after he had flown in from Liberia, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. |
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KiwiMum
Chief Moderator Joined: May 29 2013 Status: Offline Points: 29680 |
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When my children were babies, they both would put whatever they could get into their mouths, and they both, repeatedly, would lick and suck the handle of the supermarket trolley, whenever my back was turned. I flew with a 9 month old and he licked the tray table and loved it.
It would be very easy to catch Ebola if you have a baby / toddler in the house. All you need is for your baby to lick something with the Ebola virus on and then you'll catch it. Anyone who has ever been kissed by a baby or who has shared food with a baby or toddler will know exactly what I'm talking about.
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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Guests
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These countries need to be isolated but it will cause chaos in Africa. The WHO has made and emergency call then says OH, you really can't get it. What happens when these people on a plane sneeze, cough, go to the bathroom and spread the virus in so many ways in a bathroom!!!
Sorry but if the world does not isolate they will be having problems especially if it is India, South/Central America, China, Middle East. All of these countries are third world in basic cleanliness. KiwiMum we know how children and our husbands pick up every virus they get near...no different all over the world! |
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Elver
Valued Member Joined: June 14 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7778 |
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This W.H.O. post is pure B.S.! Here is how it is going to happen. Someone will come over from Africa and won't exhibit symptoms until they arrive at home in the U.S. His wife, thinking that he has the flu, will clean up the puke that is on the bathroom floor and become infected herself. The wife goes into the hospital, and the ER staff mistake this for the seasonal flu because it is late December. Now we have 1 or more infected ER workers who go home, thinking they've also got the flu, and infect their families. Their family members get vomiting and diarrhea and one or more of them show up in the ER and infect another ER doctor or nurse. Meanwhile, the emergency rooms in these hospitals have the dried Ebola virus on the bed rails because the patient coughed in his hands and grabbed the bed and/or bathroom rails, which could then infect some poor sap who showed up with appendicitis or a heart attack. And we all know just how clean our hospitals are!
Doesn't anyone get this? These people don't have to show symptoms on the airplane. They can vomit or have diarrhea in the airport or once they get home. Or, they might puke in a hotel room and infect the maid who has to clean up the mess. Wouldn't you like to be the next person to check in that hotel room afterwards? How about the person flying in from Africa and goes to see a movie the next day. While the theater is filled to near capacity, he pukes all over the floor and seat in front of him. This same person craps all over the inside his pants, goes to the theater's public restroom, uses bunches of paper towels to clean himself up with and while pushing them all in the waste can, some Ebola diarrhea gets on the push lid that some other poor sap just happens to touch when he throws his towel in the trash can. Some poor minimum wage kid has to clean the vomit up in the theater, then he goes home, pukes a few days later, and infects his girlfriend who goes to her parents a couple of days after that and pukes all over the dinner table. And what about that diarrhea that clings to the inside of all the public toilets in the universe. What happens when those power flushes aerosolize some of that crap before you can get out of there? The scenarios of how people will become infected from patient zero in the U.S. are endless. The CDC will then be in a big scramble to contact anyone and everyone who came in contact with the first person who died, and the second, and the third. This will go on until the CDC realizes the problem is large enough for them to advise Obama to shut all flights down out of W. Africa. And by then, it will be too late because patient zero's son just puked all over his desk and floor while sitting in class. The teacher helped clean up the mess, and, well, I think you have the picture by now. |
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Glenn Thomas
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WHO is behind this outbreak, working hand in glove with NATO/EU and first world 1%.
This decree alone proves UNEQUIVOCABLY what WHO's real agenda is: AGENDA 21 and POPULATION REDUCTION. The refusal to cordon or try to contain the spread of Ebola is ACTIONABLE by law. These scum are WAR CRIMINALS. Intent is undeniable in their own statement. Prepare for them to release the super-spreader strain at the opportune time, claim it mutated and "who could have known"? people WAKE UP, Earth is in the balance, its about NWO and One World govt |
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Ben Dover
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Glenn,
This isn't a matter of us (especially in this forum) waking up. WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO ABOUT THIS? We are powerless, so I'm not sure what you are wanting anyone to wake up and do??? We have been watching this since March in this forum and at that time Doctors Without Borders was screaming for help in containing it then. We are not able to do anything about this situation, but watch what is happening and try out very best to protect ourselves if possible.....
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Elver
Valued Member Joined: June 14 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7778 |
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For starters, we can all donate to either Samaritan's Purse or Doctor's Without Borders. Then we can send those links to family and friends and ask if they will donate also. The African doctor's and nurses don't even have gloves to put on which is why they are all getting infected and spreading this disease themselves.
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